contact workers: how close do we stay?

Supervised contact is close work.

Our role is to observe without intruding, to hear without interrupting. We stay within sight and sound so that if a moment needs support, we’re already there. Most of what we document isn’t dramatic.

It’s the quiet flow of conversation, the rhythm of play, the way trust rebuilds one sentence at a time.

We notice the flow of interaction - not to assess, but to understand how families connect in real time. We see how comfort builds across a visit, how laughter starts to return, how a child looks up for reassurance before answering.

Our reports captures these small, human details: the pauses, the gentle corrections, the gradual softening that shows relationships beginning to repair

Sometimes, even in the best visits, a child can become emotionally dysregulated - overwhelmed, tired, or unsure.

When that happens, our contact workers gently step in to help the moment settle. It might be offering a drink of water, a quiet redirection, or a short break to breathe and reset.

These small interventions keep visits child focused. They remind everyone that connection grows best when a child feels calm, safe, and understood. 

Being close enough to hear every word means understanding the emotional weight of ordinary language. It means hearing a parent say “you’ve grown” and knowing it carries months of missing and hope.

It means hearing “watch me” and understanding what’s being asked is, please, see me again.

When you stand close enough to hear every word, you also hear the things that aren’t said. The breath a parent takes before asking a question. The sound of a child’s shoes scuffing the ground while they decide whether to answer.

You learn that being child focused isn’t about stepping in - it’s about holding the space still enough for connection to find its way back.