The Ultimate Guide to Child Arrangement Orders UK

A child arrangements order is what the family court can put in place when separated parents cannot agree where their children should live and how they will spend time with each parent. This guide explains what the order is, what it costs, how to get one with or without going to court, and how the court decides. It also covers the questions parents ask us most often, including whether fathers get equal time, whether courts favour mothers, and what happens when arrangements involve domestic abuse.

Before we go further, one reassurance. A court order is not the goal for most families, and it is not the starting point either. The arrangements that work best are usually the ones parents shape themselves, with help where they need it. We will come back to that throughout.

Child custody or child arrangements order? What the terms mean now

Many people still search for "child custody", and that is completely understandable. It is the term most of us grew up with. In England and Wales, though, "custody" is no longer used in law. Since 2014 the courts use a child arrangements order instead, which simply sets out who a child lives with and who they spend time with.

The change in language was deliberate. "Custody" and "access" suggested one parent won and the other visited. The newer wording, "lives with" and "spends time with", reflects the idea that children usually benefit from a relationship with both parents, rather than one parent owning their time. So if you have been looking for child custody in the UK, a child arrangements order is what you are looking for. We use the modern term throughout this guide, because using the correct wording on your court forms also helps your application be taken seriously.

What is a child arrangements order?

A child arrangements order is made under section 8 of the Children Act 1989. It regulates two things:

• Who a child lives with: this used to be called a residence order.
• Who a child spends time with or otherwise has contact with: this used to be called a contact order.

Every order is different, because every family is different. The court does not work from a template. It looks at what is best for the particular child in front of it. A few features are worth knowing about:

• It is legally binding: both parents must follow it, and the court can take enforcement action if one parent does not.
• Duration: the "spends time with" part usually lasts until the child turns 16, and the "lives with" part until 18, though courts rarely enforce arrangements beyond 16 except in unusual circumstances (section 91(10) Children Act 1989).
• Travel: if the order says the child lives with you, you can take them out of England and Wales for up to one month without anyone else's consent, unless the order says otherwise (section 13(2)).
• Surname: while an order is in force, neither parent can change the child's surname without everyone with parental responsibility agreeing, or the court's permission (section 13(1)).

An order is only one route. If you are not yet sure what parental responsibility means or who has it, our guide to parental responsibility and your rights is a good place to start.

How much does a child arrangements order cost?

Cost is the question we are asked first, so let us answer it plainly. The court fee for a child arrangements order application is £270. If you represent yourself, that may be your only cost. The expense climbs quickly if you instruct a solicitor, and falls sharply if you can agree through mediation instead.

In short, a court order made without lawyers costs £270, the same arrangement reached through mediation often costs little or nothing once the voucher is applied, and a fully contested court case with solicitors can run into five figures. The cheapest and usually the calmest route is to agree.

Ways to agree child arrangements without court

Court is not the only way, and it is rarely the first. There is a ladder of options, and it is worth starting at the top and only moving down if you need to. We have set them out below in the order we would usually suggest. For a fuller breakdown, see our guide to the 11 methods to resolve your dispute.

If the other parent has stopped contact altogether, start with our six steps for when you are denied access to your child.

How family mediation works for child arrangements

Mediation is the route most separating parents use, and the one the court expects you to have considered first. At Mediate UK, around 90% of clients who attend joint sessions reach an agreement. Here is how it works.

The MIAM, your first step

Before you can apply to court for a child arrangements order, you must attend a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting, or MIAM, unless an exemption applies. Our guide to attending a MIAM explains it in full, but in short the mediator will explain how mediation works, assess whether it is suitable, screen for any safeguarding concerns including domestic abuse, and invite the other parent to attend their own MIAM. If you are not sure whether the requirement applies to you, use our do I need a MIAM checker.

A MIAM costs £115 plus VAT per person. If you qualify for legal aid it is free, and if you qualify but the other parent does not, their MIAM and first joint session are free too.

Joint sessions and your parenting plan

If you both agree to continue, you attend joint sessions, in the same room, separate rooms, or online. The mediator stays impartial and helps you work through the practical questions one by one. Sessions cost £120 plus VAT per person per hour, and the Government's £500 family mediation voucher can cover your first joint session. You can check your eligibility on gov.uk.

What you end up with is a parenting plan, a written record of how you will share the year ahead. A good plan covers the weekly routine, handovers, school holidays, birthdays and special days, how you will communicate, and how you will handle changes as the children grow. Our guide to the 12 things you should include when agreeing a parenting plan is a useful checklist, and many parents find a shared calendar or co-parenting app keeps things running smoothly once the plan is in place, our pick of the best parenting and co-parenting apps is worth a look.

If talking to each other keeps leading to arguments, a more structured approach called parallel parenting lets you each run your own time with the children with very little direct contact.

Child Inclusive Mediation: hearing your child's voice

For children aged around 10 and over, you can choose Child Inclusive Mediation (CIM). This gives children a safe way to have their wishes and feelings heard, without ever being asked to choose between their parents or make the decision themselves.

It works like this: both parents agree to include the children; a specially trained mediator writes to the child and invites them to take part; the child decides whether they want to; the conversation is confidential, and the child controls what feedback is shared; and the parents use that feedback to shape the arrangements. The child is never put in the position of picking sides.

Making your agreement legally binding

An agreement reached in mediation is not automatically binding, but it can be made so. If you want the security of a court order without the conflict of a contested hearing, you can apply for a consent order, which is a child arrangements order that both parents agree to. The judge checks it is in the child's best interests and, if so, makes it. Many parents are happy with a written parenting plan and never need this step, but it is there if you want it. Our guide on whether a parenting plan is legally binding explains the difference, and you can contact us about our fixed fee consent order service.

Applying to court for a child arrangements order

If agreement is not possible, you can apply to court. You should consider this where the other parent is preventing contact, where informal arrangements keep breaking down, where there are genuine safety concerns, or where the other parent will not engage with mediation. Here is what the process looks like.

Step 1: Complete Form C100

The application is made on Form C100. It asks for details about you, the other parent and the children, your proposals, what you have done to resolve matters outside court, and your signed MIAM certificate. Completing it well matters, so our ultimate guide to completing a C100 form walks you through it, and you can download the C100 form here. If you would rather have it completed for you, Family Law Service offers a fixed fee C100 completion service.

Step 2: Submit to court

You send your C100 to the family court with the £270 fee, or a help with fees application if you are on a low income.

Step 3: CAFCASS safeguarding checks

Once your application is received, CAFCASS (the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service) carries out safeguarding checks with the police and local authority, and usually speaks to both parents by phone. It then sends the court a short safeguarding letter. CAFCASS does not make the decision, its job is to advise the court independently on what is safe and in the child's best interests. If the case goes further, the court can ask CAFCASS for a fuller welfare report under section 7 of the Children Act 1989.

Step 4: Court hearings

The first hearing, the First Hearing Dispute Resolution Appointment (FHDRA), usually takes place 4 to 6 weeks after you apply. The court identifies the issues, considers the CAFCASS safeguarding letter, and explores whether agreement is possible. Many cases settle here. If they do not, the court may order a fuller CAFCASS report, or other evidence, and set a timetable. At a final hearing, if it comes to that, a judge hears the evidence and makes the order.

Throughout, the judge's paramount consideration is the child's welfare, assessed against the welfare checklist in section 1(3) of the Children Act 1989, which our guide to the welfare checklist sets out in detail. It covers the child's wishes and feelings, their needs, the likely effect of change, any risk of harm, and how capable each parent is of meeting those needs.

How the court decides, and a major change coming in 2026

Two principles sit at the heart of every decision. First, the child's welfare is paramount, it comes before anything else (section 1(1) Children Act 1989). Second, when one parent opposes an order, the court weighs the welfare checklist in section 1(3).

There is also a third rule you may have heard of, the presumption of parental involvement. Added to the Children and Families Act 2014, section 1(2A) of the Children Act 1989 currently requires the court to presume, unless the contrary is shown, that involving each parent in the child's life will further the child's welfare. Two points are widely misunderstood:

• It does not mean equal time. Section 1(2B) is explicit that "involvement" means involvement of some kind, direct or indirect, and not any particular division of the child's time. There is no presumption of a 50/50 split.
• It does not apply where there is a risk of harm. The presumption only applies to a parent who can be involved without putting the child at risk, and it can be rebutted by evidence (section 1(6)).

Here is the important update. Following its Review of the Presumption of Parental Involvement, published in October 2025, the Government has decided to repeal this presumption. The repeal sits in clause 17 of the Courts and Tribunals Bill, which passed its second reading in the House of Commons in March 2026 and is making its way through Parliament. The change is largely driven by concerns that the presumption contributed to a "pro-contact culture" that did not always keep children safe where domestic abuse was a factor.

As of June 2026 the presumption still applies, because the Bill has not yet become law. If it passes, the court will start from a neutral position rather than a presumption, and the child's welfare and the welfare checklist will remain the central test. In practice the review found that judges already treated the presumption as just one factor among many, with welfare as the deciding consideration, so for most families the day-to-day approach of the court is unlikely to change dramatically. We will update this guide as the Bill progresses.

Child arrangements and domestic abuse

Domestic abuse is far more common in these cases than many people realise. A recent House of Commons Library briefing, Child arrangements: the family court and domestic abuse (February 2026), notes that allegations of domestic abuse feature in a very large share of child arrangements cases, with one 2025 review finding domestic abuse was an issue in 87% of the closed case files it looked at. If this is your situation, the way forward is different, and your safety and your child's safety come first.

Mediation is not expected where it is not safe

Mediation is voluntary and is not suitable in many abuse situations. The MIAM exists partly to screen for this, and domestic abuse is one of the recognised reasons you do not have to attend a MIAM before applying to court, our guide to the 15 exemptions to attending a MIAM lists them. Where there are signs of domestic abuse, the court must also make sure parties are not pushed into forms of dispute resolution that are not safe or suitable.

How the court handles abuse: Practice Direction 12J

Where domestic abuse is alleged, admitted or proven, the court follows Practice Direction 12J of the Family Procedure Rules. It must consider domestic abuse at every stage, and certainly at the first hearing. Where abuse is admitted or proven, any child arrangements order must protect the safety and wellbeing of the child and the parent the child lives with, and must not expose either of them to the risk of further harm. The court can hold a fact-finding hearing to decide what happened, and it can order that any contact be supervised, indirect, or, where necessary, that there be no contact at all.

Parental alienation and alienating behaviours

You may hear the phrase "parental alienation". The courts and CAFCASS now prefer to talk about "alienating behaviours", and the idea of a diagnosable alienation "syndrome" has been rejected as having no sound basis, a point made clearly by the President of the Family Division in Re C ('Parental Alienation'; Instruction of Expert) [2023] EWHC 345 (Fam). Family Justice Council guidance from December 2024 sets a high bar before a court will find that alienating behaviours have occurred. Importantly, where a child resists seeing a parent, the first question is always whether domestic abuse or harmful parenting is the real reason, because allegations of alienation are sometimes raised as a counter-allegation to abuse.

Pathfinder courts

In a growing number of areas, family courts now use a reformed "Pathfinder" approach, which is more investigative and less adversarial, gathers information about risk earlier, and puts more focus on the voice of the child. It is designed in particular to improve the experience for victims of domestic abuse and their children.

If you are experiencing domestic abuse, you can contact the police, and free confidential support is available. This is a sensitive subject, and if any of it affects you personally, please reach out to a trusted organisation or professional for support.

Do fathers get 50/50? Do courts favour mothers?

These are some of the most common worries we hear, often from fathers who feel the system is stacked against them, and sometimes from mothers who feel the opposite. The honest answer is that the law does not favour either parent, and there is no automatic 50/50.

• No legal preference for mothers. Nothing in the Children Act 1989 gives mothers more rights than fathers over child arrangements. The court decides on the child's welfare, not the parent's gender.
• No automatic equal time. While the presumption of parental involvement still applies, it is about each parent being involved, not about splitting time down the middle. The law is explicit that it does not mean any particular division of the child's time.
• Quality matters more than quantity. Government research found that once you account for things like the level of conflict between parents and family income, the difference in outcomes between shared care and mainly living with one parent largely disappears. What helps children most is a warm, reliable relationship, not a precise number of nights.

So both parents start on an equal footing. Where one parent ends up with more day-to-day time, it is because of practical things like school, work patterns, where each parent lives and the children's routines, not because the court favours one over the other.

Is there a typical or standard child arrangements order?

No. There is no standard child arrangements order and no fixed number of nights a parent "should" get. People often imagine alternate weekends as the default, but in reality the arrangement is built around the particular child. The things that shape it include the children's ages, school and nursery routines, each parent's work pattern, the distance between homes, the children's activities, how involved each parent has been, and any special needs.

The same goes for the question "how many times a week should a dad see his child?" There is no legal answer. What matters is what works for the child at their stage of development. As a rough guide, arrangements often look something like this:

See how the nights add up: example schedules and a nights calculator

It can be hard to picture what a routine actually looks like, and seeing how the nights fall across a month can help. Below are three common term-time patterns over a four week cycle, with the nights added up for each parent. Underneath, you can build your own.

Example 1: a 50/50 routine

Handovers can take place at school, which keeps things consistent during the week. The longest gap without seeing a parent is about 5 days.

Example 2: alternate weekends with a midweek night

A midweek night lets the other parent share homework and school runs, not just weekends. The longest gap without seeing a parent is about 6 days.

Example 3: a 3-4-4-3 routine

The child spends 3 nights with one parent, then 4 with the other, then it swaps over. Works well where there is a long drive between the two homes.

Build your own four week schedule

Tap each night to switch it between Mum and Dad. The totals update as you go. This is a simple term-time guide. It does not include school holidays, half terms or changeovers.

Moving away and taking children abroad

Relocation is one of the hardest issues, because a move that suits one parent can take the children a long way from the other.

Moving within the UK: if a move would make the current arrangements unworkable, the right approach is to discuss it, try mediation to agree new arrangements, and, if you cannot agree, apply to vary the order. Moving abroad: to relocate permanently with the children you need the consent of everyone with parental responsibility, or the court's permission. If the order says the child lives with you, you can take them abroad for up to one month without consent (section 13(2)), but longer trips or a permanent move need agreement or a court order. You can read the rules on taking a child abroad on gov.uk.

It is worth correcting a common misconception here. For years, relocation cases were decided using guidance from Payne v Payne [2001] EWCA Civ 166. That case is no longer the leading authority, and relying on it too heavily is now treated as an error of law. The modern approach, set out in K v K (Children: Permanent Removal from Jurisdiction) [2011] EWCA Civ 793 and Re F (A Child) (International Relocation Cases) [2015] EWCA Civ 882, is a single, welfare-based analysis that weighs the realistic effect of the move, and of refusing it, on the child. The only true principle is the welfare of the child. These cases are complex, so it can be helpful to get legal advice before applying.

Changing a child's surname

While a child arrangements order is in force, neither parent can change the child's surname without the consent of everyone with parental responsibility or the court's permission (section 13(1)). If the other parent will not agree, you can apply for a specific issue order. The court will weigh the welfare checklist and the effect on the child's relationship with each parent. The courts treat a child's surname as an important part of their identity and will not allow a change lightly, with the child's welfare coming first (see Re R (A Child) (Surname: Using Both Parents) [2001] EWCA Civ 1344).

What happens if a child arrangements order is broken?

A first, important point: the police cannot enforce a child arrangements order. If the child is safe and with someone who has parental responsibility, this is a family law matter, not a criminal one, so you cannot call the police to make the other parent hand the child over.

If someone breaches the order, you can apply to court for enforcement. The court will only make an enforcement order if it is satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the person failed to comply without a reasonable excuse (section 11J Children Act 1989). A genuinely ill child, a real emergency, or unsafe travel conditions can all be reasonable excuses. Where there is no reasonable excuse, the court has a range of powers:

If your arrangement was an informal parenting plan rather than an order, there is no legal enforcement. Your options are to return to mediation to fix what is not working, or to apply to court for an order. Either way, you will usually need a new MIAM unless you attended one in the last four months.

Can a child arrangements order be changed?

Yes. Children grow and circumstances change. If you both agree, you can simply follow new arrangements, or ask the court to vary the order by consent so the change is binding. If you cannot agree, you can apply to vary it, showing that circumstances have changed significantly, perhaps a house move, a new work pattern, or the child's needs or wishes shifting, and that the change is in the child's best interests. As with the original application, you will normally need to attend a MIAM first.

Top tips from a family mediator

Getting help and support

You do not have to work through child arrangements on your own. Alongside Mediate UK, these organisations can help:

• Gingerbread: support for single parent families, at gingerbread.org.uk.
• CAFCASS: information for separated parents, at cafcass.gov.uk.
• Mediate UK: speak to one of our accredited family mediators, meet our mediators.
• Legal aid checker: see if you qualify, at mediateuk.co.uk/legal-aid-checker.
• The Divorce Circle: free emotional support and resources for separation, at thedivorcecircle.co.uk.

Frequently Asked Questions

About the author. Jess Knauf is the Director of Client Strategy at Mediate UK and the primary author of our guides. With years of experience supporting separating families across England and Wales, Jess is a member of Resolution and a published author of The Divorce Guide 2026.