Establishment of an Accreditation Scheme for Children’s Contact Services

Overview

Children’s Contact Services (CCS) play a critical role in assisting families to maintain contact after separation where it is not safe to do so without assistance. CCS allow children to continue to spend time with parents (or significant others in their lives) who they do not normally live with.

Following recommendations from the Australian Law Reform Commission’s Family Law for the Future inquiry and the Joint Select Committee on Australia’s Family Law System, the government is considering options to establish an accreditation scheme for CCS.

Following several rounds of consultation, we have developed detailed options for the proposed accreditation scheme. We are now seeking comment on these options.

We will use the feedback and data from this consultation process to help complete an impact analysis of the various options. The consultation paper is structured to meet the requirements of the Australian Government’s Impact Analysis process. We will complete the final impact analysis after consultation.

Why we are consulting

We want to hear views on the options for accrediting CCS, and establish the correct basis for assessing the impact of proceeding with any of the proposed options.

Who we want to hear from

We invite comment from:

• current or future providers of children’s contact services
• users of services
• bodies that might be associated with managing complaints in relation to services
• other interested parties.

Consultation document

• Establishment of an Accreditation Scheme for Children’s Contact Services [PDF 1MB]
• Establishment of an Accreditation Scheme for Children’s Contact Services [DOCX 628KB]