Hearing the 'Voice of the Child'? The Role of Child Contact Centres in the Family Justice System

The importance of hearing the 'voice of the child' has increasingly been recognised in the family law arena. This article examines the extent to which children’s wishes and feelings were heard and taken into account in child contact centres in England. A typology of child engagement was developed from the data which suggests that engagement with children across contact centres is diverse and can be conceptualised as ranging from 'coercive' to 'limited' to 'meaningful'. Based on interviews with contact centre workers as well as judges, solicitors and social workers who had referred to a contact centre it is argued that practice is not just influenced by factors within contact centres; rather it is affected by the wider system. The findings suggest system-wide ambiguity concerning the role of contact centres in implementing court ordered contact and a mismatch in some centres’ and referrers’ understandings of each other’s capacity to engage with vulnerable children. The article concludes that contact centres have an integral role to play within the family justice system in ensuring that the 'voice of the child' is heard. In order for centres to engage meaningfully with children, the issues influencing engagement must be addressed at both the organisational and system-wide level.