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Family Law ServicesChild Arrangements

Child Arrangements

When you’re getting divorced, or you’re separating, you want to make sure your children continue with a happy family dynamic, even though it’s changing.

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What happens to the children?

You can make arrangements for your children without any formal legal process, and usually that’s the best way to do it if you can.

You and your ex-partner will need to agree on the three big topics of:

Where your children will live
How much time they’ll spend with each parent
How you’ll financially support your children

If you can agree on those issues, then it’s a good idea to write down what you’ve agreed. You can do this in a Parenting Plan, which is a record of the agreement, but it’s not legally binding. If you’d like to make it legally binding, then we might be able to draft a consent order for you to file at court.

If you and your ex can’t agree on the arrangements for your children, then you can apply to court for a Child Arrangement Order.

Child Arrangement Orders

A child arrangement order is a legally binding document that mainly sets out where your children will live and how much time they spend with each parent.

The child arrangement order applies to children who are 15 years old or younger. When the child turns 16, the order is no longer enforceable in most cases.

At the heart of this process is the welfare of your children. So the court will make decisions based upon all of the circumstances, and the judge will do their best to hear and consider the feelings and wishes of your children, in a lot of cases.

The order will reflect the judge’s view on what is best for the child, and the Court will encourage shared parenting wherever possible.

The process

To get a Child Arrangement Order, you’ll follow these steps

1. Attend a Mediation Information Assessment Meeting (MIAM)

This is mandatory, unless there have been circumstances of domestic abuse or there is some other urgency. The meeting gives you the opportunity to discuss with the mediator whether or not mediation is suitable for you.

2. Apply to court for a child arrangement order

You fill out a C100 form and then submit it to court. You can do this yourself, or we can do the legal steps for you.

3. Attend your first hearing

You and your ex-partner will go to court for a first hearing, where the judge will try to make arrangements that you and your partner can agree upon. If you reach agreement at court, you can sign a consent order which formalises the arrangements. If you can’t agree, the judge will give you directions for what happens next.

4. Dispute Resolution Appointment

In most cases, you'll have a Dispute Resolution Appointment. It's a hearing in court, and is a second chance for parties to reach an agreement on the arrangements for children. You're given a second chance because, since the first hearing, more evidence might have come to light which can help you agree. If you can't agree, then you move onto the final hearing.

5. Final hearing

At a final hearing, the court will make an order for the arrangements of your children, based upon what they think is in the best interests of the children. You will be required to attend and might need to give evidence to the court. Witnesses can also be called to give evidence at a final hearing.

Emergency orders

Occasionally it is necessary to get emergency orders for child arrangements. This can be the case if there is a risk:

To your life, freedom or physical safety
Of harm to a child
That a child would be removed from the UK without consent

In these circumstances, you normally don’t need to attend a mediation first and you can consider applying to court for an emergency order.

Specific Issues Order

Prohibited Steps Order

Child maintenance

Child maintenance relates to how your child’s living costs will be paid when one of the parents does not live with the child. It’s the financial agreement between you and the other parent of your child.

You can make this agreement privately between you and the other parent. It doesn’t need to be a formal agreement approved by the courts. And you can change it as and when you need to if your circumstances change.

The sorts of things the agreement will cover includes:

Monthly payments to the other parent for day-to-day care
Paying for school uniforms, trips, clubs
Costs of travel arrangements if the other parent has relocated

If you cannot agree, or you don’t feel comfortable speaking to your ex-partner, you can use the Child Maintenance Service to reach a workable agreement.

What rights do Grandparents have?

If you’ve been cut out of your grandchildren’s lives after a divorce or separation, you might be able to apply to Court for an order allowing the children to see you again.

Unfortunately, you do not have an automatic right to apply to the court, as unfair as that may seem.

We can apply for permission to submit an application for you. If the parents object, you will have to attend at least one hearing on the matter.

Parental responsibility

People with Parental Responsibility have the right to make decisions such as:

The child’s religion
Any medical treatment the child receives
Where the child goes to school
The arrangements for where they live

For married couples, both the mother and the father have Parental Responsibility for the child if they are the biological parents.

If the father was not married to the mother when the child was born, he will only have Parental Responsibility if his name is registered on the birth certificate.

If a father does not have Parental Responsibility, we can draft a Parental Responsibility Agreement to give him those rights. We can only do that if the mother agrees.

We can also create Parental Responsibility Agreements for step-parents in certain circumstances.

Client Success

Read John's success story and how Faizah supported him throughout his journey.

Read Reviews

Faizah Chaudhri has supported me with a matter for my children for 8 months guiding and supporting me all the way. I cannot thank you enough for all your support and wouldn’t hesitate to reach out again if I needed support in the future. Thank you so much

Special Guardianships

If somebody who is not the parent of the child wants to become their legal guardian, they could apply to court for a Special Guardianship Order.

The order allows the special guardian to make day-to-day decisions for the child about their health, welfare, and lifestyle, until the child reaches the age of 18. In other words, the guardian has parental responsibility for the child, and it doesn't matter if anyone else also has parental responsibility.

These sorts of orders are suitable when it is not appropriate for the child to live with their birth parents.

We can apply to court on your behalf to become the guardian of a child.

Come in to have a chat with us to discuss your situation.

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Supporting you through the process

Whatever your situation, a good first step is to come in for a no-obligation consultation. At your free initial consultation (45 minutes), one of our experienced lawyers will give you advice about your current situation.

Book a free consultation

Co-parenting tips after divorce

Getting to grips with your new family dynamic can take some time, for you and the children. We've put together a few tips to make the change as smooth as possible.

Here's a quick summary:

Reassure your children that they weren’t the cause of the separation
Work on setting aside any negativity towards your partner
Make your contact days as normal as possible
Work together with the other parent for decisions around education, finances, and medical needs.
Try to keep open lines of communication with the other parent.

You can read the full article below.

Read the article

Going through a divorce is never easy and when children are involved it can be tough. Here at K J Smith our professional child law solicitors handle all matters relating to children when a relationship ends, whether you are married or not.

Our locations

We have a variety of locations to choose from across the South East of England, our solicitors are more than happy to accomodate an initial consultation close to one of these locations depending on your preference.

Ascot

Basingstoke

Beaconsfield

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Bournemouth

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St Albans

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Awards & Recognitions

We’re recognised by the Legal 500 as a Leading Firm in a number of practice areas. That means that an external, objective body has scrutinised our competency and client reviews, and found us to be one of the top family law practices in the UK.

Our lawyers are members of Resolution, so we are committed to a Code of Practice which promotes a constructive approach to family issues that considers the needs of the whole family.