Form C79: How to Enforce a Child Arrangements Order (2026)

Form C79 Expalined

If you are searching for the C79 form, something has almost certainly gone wrong. You have a court order, you have done everything it asks of you, and the handovers have stopped happening anyway. That is a horrible position to be in, and the frustration is usually made worse by not knowing whether the court will actually do anything about it.

This guide explains what the C79 does, when it is the right application, what evidence the court expects, what powers a judge actually has, and the alternatives that often get children seeing both parents faster. If you want a refresher on how these orders work before you go any further, start there and then come back.

Is the C79 Form the Right Application for Your Situation?

The C79 form covers more than one type of application. According to the HMCTS guidance leaflet CB5, you use it for:

• An enforcement order: asking the court to impose an unpaid work requirement on the person who breached the order
• Action following a breach of an enforcement order: where an enforcement order was already made and has itself been ignored
• Compensation for financial loss: where the breach cost you money, for example a forfeited holiday deposit
• Revoking an enforcement order: bringing an existing one to an end
• Amending an enforcement order: for a change of address, a change to the hours of unpaid work, or to extend the 12 month period for completing that work

Who can apply is set by section 11J of the Children Act 1989. It is the person the child lives with, the person whose contact is provided for in the order, anyone subject to a condition in the order, or the child themselves with the court’s permission. A grandparent named in the order can apply. A concerned relative who is not named in it cannot.

One thing worth checking before anything else: the C79 is not the form for adding a warning notice to an old order. If your child arrangements order started life as a contact order made before 8 December 2008, you may need form C78 first. Orders made since then carry the warning notice automatically.

Does Every Missed Handover Count as a Breach of a Child Arrangements Order?

No, and this is where a lot of applications come unstuck. A judge draws a firm line between deliberate non-compliance and life getting in the way. A single cancelled weekend because a child had chickenpox is not a breach of a child arrangements order. A pattern of refusals, last-minute cancellations with no explanation, or a flat statement that contact is stopping, is.

The law gives the other parent a specific defence: reasonable excuse. Under section 11J(3) and (4), the court cannot make an enforcement order if it is satisfied that the person had a reasonable excuse, and it is for them to prove it on the balance of probabilities. Illness, an unavoidable work emergency, or a genuine safeguarding worry can all qualify. Being annoyed with you does not.

So before you file anything, build a record. Dates, times, what was arranged, what actually happened, and the messages that go with each one. A short chronology with screenshots attached is worth far more to a judge than several pages of history about the relationship.

Should You Try Mediation Before You File a C79 Form?

There is a common misunderstanding here, so let us be precise. Enforcement applications are not on the list of proceedings in Practice Direction 3A that carry the MIAM requirement, so you do not have to attend a MIAM before submitting a C79. That is different from a C100.

What has not changed is the court’s own duty. Under rule 3.3 of the Family Procedure Rules the court must consider, at every stage, whether non-court dispute resolution is appropriate, and it can adjourn the case so it happens. Judges also take a party’s approach to non-court options into account when deciding costs. Turning up to an enforcement hearing having made no attempt to sort it out directly rarely reads well.

There is a practical argument too. Enforcement hearings take months to list and the realistic outcome in many cases is a warning and a revised order. Mediation can often deal with the same problem in a few weeks, and because the dispute involves child arrangements you may qualify for the government family mediation voucher scheme, a one-off contribution of up to £500 per family towards the cost of mediation. It is not means tested, it does not cover the MIAM itself, and it is applied for by an FMC authorised mediator on your behalf.

How Do You Fill In and Submit the C79 Form?

The process for enforcing a contact order is more straightforward than most people expect. The difficulty is in the evidence, not the paperwork.

Step 1: Download the current version

Take it from the GOV.UK C79 page rather than a third party site, because the form is updated periodically. The version in use at the time of writing was issued in June 2026.

Step 2: Give the court the order and the case number

You need the name of the court that made the order, the case number, and a copy of the order itself. Without those the court cannot process the application. If you do not want your address shared with the other parent, leave those boxes blank and file form C8 instead.

Step 3: Set out the breaches clearly

List each occasion in date order. For each one, say what the order required, what happened instead, what reason was given, and what you did in response. Keep it factual. Judges read a lot of these and the ones that land are specific rather than emotional.

Step 4: File it and pay the fee

Send the application to the court that made the original order, by post or email. If money is tight, you may be able to apply for help with court fees using form EX160. The court will issue the application, serve the other parent, and list a hearing.

Step 5: The first hearing

Cafcass will usually carry out safeguarding checks first. At the hearing the judge will decide whether the facts are disputed. If they are, a fact finding hearing may be needed before any enforcement decision can be made, which adds time.

Can the Court Punish an Ex Who Breaks a Court Order?

It can, though the powers are used more sparingly than most parents expect. This is what to do when your ex breaks a court order and the court agrees a breach has happened without reasonable excuse:

Running through all of it is section 11L, which requires the court to weigh the welfare of the child before making an enforcement order. That is why sanctions that would destabilise a child’s home are used so cautiously, and it is worth reading our note on the welfare checklist to understand how judges frame these decisions.

Will the Court Grant an Enforcement Order in Your Case?

Possibly, but the bar is high. The court must be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the breach occurred, which is the criminal standard of proof. It is a deliberately demanding test, because the consequences are penal.

Two further conditions matter. The person must have been given the order with the warning notice attached, or been told what it says, before the breach happened. And the court must think an enforcement order is necessary and proportionate. Judges quite often find a breach proved and still decline to make an order, on the basis that punishing one parent will not improve the child’s week-to-week life.

Applications that do well tend to share three features: a documented pattern rather than a single incident, evidence that the applicant tried to resolve it first, and a clear, modest request for what the court should do. Applications that struggle are usually the ones that read as a general complaint about the other parent.

Should You Apply to Enforce or to Change the Order?

This is the single most useful question to ask yourself, and the answer decides your form.

• Use the C79: the order still works, the other parent is simply refusing to follow it
• Use a C100: the order no longer fits real life, so you want it varied. Our C100 guide walks through that route, and a MIAM is required first unless an exemption applies
• Consider both: some parents apply to enforce and to vary at the same time, so the court can deal with the breach and fix the timetable in one go

If the sticking point is a teenager who no longer wants the arrangement, neither form is really the answer. Child inclusive mediation gives the child a safe way to say what they want, which is usually the information both parents are missing.

How Much Does It Cost to Enforce a Contact Order?

The court fee for an enforcement order or a compensation order following a breach of a child arrangements order is £270, the same as a new Children Act application. A follow-on application to revoke, amend, extend or take action after the breach of an existing enforcement order is lower, at £119. Court fees were uplifted in July 2026, so check the current figure on the GOV.UK family court fees page before you pay, as of July 2026.

On top of the fee, budget for time. Contested enforcement often means two or three hearings across several months, and legal representation for that is where the real cost sits. Weighed against a few mediation sessions, part-funded by the voucher, the arithmetic usually favours trying to agree first.

Frequently Asked Questions