Inverness, the Highlands and Moray
Supervised contact where you live
Supervised contact, supported contact, handovers and transport, arranged in the family’s own area rather than at a centre an hour’s drive away. Based in Inverness, covering the whole of the Highlands and Moray.
If you are looking for a contact centre
It is worth being straight about this. Bringing Families Together is not a contact centre. A contact centre is a building, usually open on set days, staffed by volunteers and coordinators. In this region there are two, both run by Relationships Scotland Family Mediation Highland: one in Inverness and one in Wick. Supported contact at those centres is generally free of charge, and supervised contact is available at a cost. If you live near either and a centre suits your family, start there.
The problem is geography. The Highlands cover more ground than Wales. From Fort William, Inverness is the best part of two hours each way. From Elgin it is close to an hour. From Portree, longer again. For a great many families, and for everyone in Moray, there is no centre within a sensible drive of home, and a one hour session becomes a whole day out of school and work.
That is the gap this service fills. One person, coming to you, in a setting your child already knows.
What that looks like in practice
Sessions are arranged in the family’s own area, in familiar and low sensory settings wherever possible. The same person attends every time, so a child is not meeting a new face at every session. Where distance is the obstacle rather than the supervision itself, children can be collected and returned by that same person, so the journey stops being the reason contact does not happen.
What gets written down, and who sees it, is agreed before the first session. Reports suitable for court are available where they have been asked for.
Areas covered
Inverness
Sessions in familiar community settings across the city, and the base for everything else.
Nairn and Moray
Elgin, Forres, Nairn and the coast. No contact centre in Moray, so sessions are arranged locally.
Badenoch and Strathspey
Aviemore, Kingussie and Newtonmore, within comfortable reach of Inverness.
Lochaber
Fort William and the surrounding area, where the nearest centre is close to two hours each way.
Skye and Lochalsh
Portree, Broadford and Kyle, where distance makes centre based contact impractical.
Wester Ross and Easter Ross
Ullapool, Gairloch, Dingwall, Alness and Tain.
Sutherland and Caithness
Golspie, Brora, Wick and Thurso, with a contact centre in Wick.
Common questions
- Is there a contact centre in Inverness?
- Yes. Relationships Scotland Family Mediation Highland runs a child contact centre in Inverness, and a second in Wick. Supported contact there is generally free of charge, with supervised contact available at a cost. If a centre works for your family, it is worth exploring first.
- What if there is no contact centre near me?
- Across most of the Highlands and all of Moray there is no centre within a reasonable drive. Bringing Families Together works in the family's own area instead, so a child is not spending three hours in a car for a one hour session.
- Do you cover Moray?
- Yes, including Elgin, Forres and the coast. Moray has no child contact centre of its own, which is the main reason families there use an independent provider.
More on what things cost and how long arrangements last is in the guide to cost and duration, and the guide to local options covers the region area by area.