Children’s Contact Services (CCS) were implemented through the Australian Attorney General’s Department to provide children with safe spaces to visit non-residential parents when parents cannot manage their own contact arrangements. 

These are supervised environments where interactions with parents can take place and where oversight for the transfer of a child from one parent to another, in circumstances where parents are unable to manage time arrangements amicably, are sustained. 

This report presents the findings of an evaluation of a practice‑embedded child voice tool implemented within Better Place Australia’s Children’s CCS – currently operating in Narre Warren and Sale.  

The tool includes six cartoon faces that children can select from to reflect how they are feeling. It was introduced to create structured, child‑friendly opportunities for children to express how they were feeling before and after supervised visits with their non-residential parent.   

The evaluation focused on children’s engagement with the tool and how it was used in practice. It found that some children used it regularly; others chose not to. When children chose to engage, they expressed a range of feelings (both positive and negative).   

Child voice tools like this give children a way to express themselves, and staff another way to understand children’s experiences of the service.