The Safe and Meaningful Contact (SaMC) Guidelines

The Safe and Meaningful Contact (SaMC) Guidelines evolved out of frustration caused when legal-decisions about contact do not match the developmental needs of the child. This results in contact that risks placement breakdown because it is too frequent and detrimental to the child, or because potentially beneficial contact has been stopped. Legal decisions are often rooted in a view of contact as a procedural or rights based activity, rather than a process that impacts the child’s emotional and relational development. 


The value of SaMC training to your organisation:

  • Supports cultural change in professional systems and helps modernise the way in which decisions are made about contact, ensuring the child and their primary relationships remain central to planning.

  • Provides practitioners with a tool (the SaMC Guidelines) that scaffolds them to make evidence-based, trauma-informed recommendations about contact, centred around the needs of the child.

  • Allows practitioners to demonstrate to legal decision makers through use of the SaMC Guidelines that they are applying up to date, nationally recommended, best practice processes to inform their recommendations.

  • Ensures the evidence base is not just background knowledge but actively shapes decision-making.

  • Improves consistency in contact decision making through use of a universal tool that organises decisions around the developmental needs of children and young people across contexts, including short-term or permanent foster/kinship/special guardianship, residential care, and post-adoption.

  • Shifts viewing contact as a procedural or rights-based activity to one that actively supports the child’s emotional and relational development.

Burke, C, Woodhouse, A, and Burke, S, (2026). Safe and Meaningful Contact (SaMC) Guidelines (Revised). Unpublished protocol.

Psychological Minds Training Testimonials

Beth Neil, Professor of Social Work

University of East Anglia

"Excellent framework - really clearly explained. The focus on the child's history and current needs and how contact can help (or not help) is really important."

Social Worker

"I love the relational focus that includes the carer as an active participant (rather than just someone expected to carry out a job)."

Family Law Solicitor

"I thought the whole session was fantastic. So interesting in fact that I completely lost track of time and couldn’t believe it was over. It has forced me to look at my own perceptions of how things ought to be done. It had not occurred to me that whilst birth parents may not be able to “parent” they could still have a constructive role of some sort to play in a child’s life. It will change how I practice moving forward."

Clinical Psychologist

"The Safe and Meaningful Contact training is an absolute necessity for professionals in this field. It gave me a comprehensive framework to think about the important factors to consider when looking at contact for children and young people and made me feel more confident in my decision-making. Hugely recommend this training to anybody working in this field."

Lead Occupational Therapist, CAMHS

"Part of my role in CAMHS is offering consultations to professionals supporting children who are in the care system. We are often asked about the child’s contact with their biological family. This can often be complex and people can hold strong feelings about what should happen. I have found the Safe and Meaningful Contact guidelines to provide an essential and valuable framework for thinking through all aspects of contact to ensure it is facilitated in the best interests of the child. I highly recommend this course for professionals involved in decision-making around contact."

Family Law Solicitor

"I found Chris’s analysis of the effect of contact arrangements on the child to be particularly interesting and informative."

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Evidence Based Courses

"Across placement and permanency arrangements, the reviewed evidence demonstrates the value of training and professional support for all involved in contact—both in establishing the purpose of contact and ensuring that arrangements are implemented and managed accordingly". Iyer et al, 2020.

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