For six months, Kelly Penn* lived with an "emergency go" bag packed, waiting for a chance to escape her violent husband.

Key points: Children's contact services provide supervised contact for parents and children

Children's contact services provide supervised contact for parents and children There are 65 federal government-funded services operating in Australia under guidelines, but privately-operated services are unregulated

There are 65 federal government-funded services operating in Australia under guidelines, but privately-operated services are unregulated The Australian Law Reform Commission has recommended the Family Law Act be amended so children's contact services are accredited

"One day that opportunity came and I had minutes to get the kids in the car and get out, and that's what we did," Ms Penn said.

"We left with just two changes of clothes each and what was on our backs and ran."

Ms Penn applied for a domestic violence order (DVO) and, once divorced, she and her ex-husband were court-ordered to use a "children's contact service".

Child contact services provide a place for a child to go for supervised contact with a parent they do not live with, sometimes because there are concerns about family violence, child abuse, alcohol or drug misuse, or mental health issues.

The centres also act as a point of changeover between parents who cannot manage this themselves, meaning they do not need to see each other when handing over or picking up children for visitation.

There are 65 federal government-funded services operating in Australia, which are held accountable to a national framework of guiding principles and a set of administrative guidelines in order to receive their funding.

Unregulated privately operated services

The principles set out standards to adhere to in areas including staff training and ratios, record keeping, safe environment provisions and confidentiality.

Australian Children's Contact Services Association (ACCSA) spokesman Michael Cross said due to increasing demand there were lengthy wait lists to access these services, and privately run child contact services were flourishing.

Mr Cross estimated there were now between 85 and 100 private services across the country, outnumbering funded services.

He said unlike government-funded services, privately operated services were unregulated, and despite staff often having to deal with highly stressful, complex family disputes, they required no relevant qualifications or even blue card accreditation.

The ACCSA says privately run child contact services are flourishing. ( ABC News: Ashleigh Stevenson )

"Privately operated services are basically businesses operated by either individuals or partnerships, sometimes with staff, sometimes single operators, who provide similar services of supervision and changeovers," he said.

"But sometimes they're operating in a public domain like parks, shopping centres, play centres, and not a dedicated secure environment.



"They [private services] are subject to no government oversight, regulation, accreditation or any requirements of accountability whatsoever."

Staff 'didn't know how to deal with it'

Ms Penn was ordered by a court to go to a privately run centre for changeovers with her ex-husband.

She said there were issues during that period, including times when her ex-husband refused to leave the service until she arrived, and she felt staff had not handled situations appropriately.

"For the two years we'd been using a contact centre I'd believed that I was being supervised and protected by trained people, and it turned out that that was not the case," she said.

"The experience that we had was that there were some mishaps along the way and I was shocked the contact centre didn't deal with them better.

"In hindsight I realise it's because they didn't know how to deal with it."

Ex-husband started own child contact service

Months later, Ms Penn discovered her ex-husband had started operating his own privately-run child contact service.

"I was absolutely shocked as to how someone with not only a domestic violence order against them, but also breaches as well, was able to be supervising other abusers," Ms Penn said.

"I think there's a conflict of interest in that he could be supervising other cases with a very lenient eye, as he has stipulated many times that women make false accusations simply to get their children.

"I rang the Australian Children's Contact Services Association and reported him and they apologised and said unfortunately there is no regulation."

Ms Penn said she was ordered by the court to go to a centre for changeovers with her ex-husband. ( ABC News: Ashleigh Stevenson )

'Children and family members at risk'

The ACCSA has been lobbying for years for better oversight and accountability in the industry.

Mr Cross said the non-profit organisation had received a raft of complaints over the years about privately run centres, but it had now had to shut down community access to the association.

"We're a voluntary organisation and we couldn't really cope with the amount of work involved in responding to the complaints being made and weren't in a position to investigate complaints and we had no authority to sanction or try to resolve the matters," Mr Cross said.

"We see it as a necessity that any referrals that are made are made to safe and supportive environments for children and their family members and we're not always seeing that happen.

"We're seeing court orders and referrals to some services that do not comply with baseline standards and, in the association's opinion, can place children and family members at risk and further their emotional trauma or vulnerabilities."

Law reform needed

The Family Law Court has access to a set of guidelines when referring families to a children's contact service.

The guidelines include considering whether the service has the capacity to offer the supervision required, whether it has age-appropriate facilities and whether the service will accept the parents — for example, if there are security issues for staff.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Federal Court of Australia said: "In most cases, children's contact services are proposed to the Court by the parties, their legal representatives or the Independent Children's Lawyer."

In its most recent review of the family law system, the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) recommended the Family Law Act be amended to require any organisation offering a children's contact service to be accredited and make it an offence to provide a children's contact service without accreditation.

The ACCSA has lobbied for years for better oversight and accountability in the industry. ( Unsplash )

In a statement federal Attorney-General Christian Porter said he would consider the report and he had asked his department to provide comprehensive advice on each of the recommendations "to ensure that the family law system supports modern Australian families to resolve their disputes safely and as efficiently and cheaply as possible".

Mr Cross said he endorsed the ALRC's recommendations and saw it as vindication of almost a decade of campaigning for change.

"We've written to the Attorney-General and Shadow Attorney-General making our expertise available, providing support for the report and providing support to the Attorney-General's department in enacting these recommendations so that it happens as soon as possible," he said.

"So the families who are needing or required to use children's contact services can be assured of better safety, a better environment and some due process should there be any difficulties in the services provided."

Accreditation recommendation welcomed

Denise Giles and Jennifer Hughes operate privately run service Scope Family Centre, and together have a decade of experience working in child protection.

Ms Giles said she chose to run her centre sticking to similar guidelines as funded services and she believed staff should be trained to a high level to work in the sector.

"Whilst we're not funded and whilst we don't have to do things we have policies in place, we have risk assessment in place, it underpins everything we do," Ms Giles said.

"Without a framework and without policies and without some form of vision to work towards, then I think things could go horribly wrong.

Ms Giles said she would welcome the ALRC's recommendations. ( ABC News: Ashleigh Stevenson )

"Whether it's a child that developmentally is going through a difficult parental separation and is struggling, and if you haven't got those qualifications and understanding of development of children and their needs and trauma and what kids have gone through, then it's really difficult to support them.

"As well as that, there needs to be an understanding that some parents who come here may have mental health issues, substance use issues, there's a need for conflict resolution, being able to talk to them and de-escalate them when they're struggling."

Ms Giles said she would welcome the ALRC's recommendations.

"We want to be one of the services that leads this accreditation and I'm hoping that it will happen really, really quickly," she said.

"For me, if we are providing a service to the court and being their eyes and ears then outcomes for children, we want to be positive and that can only happen when we've got services that are all working in the best interests of children."

*Name changed to protect person's privacy.