What is a child arrangements order?

The two limbs, live with and spend time with

Section 8 of the Children Act 1989 defines the order as one regulating arrangements relating to with whom a child is to live, spend time or otherwise have contact, and when. Those are the two limbs, and a single order can carry both.

The live with limb settles the child’s home, and the spend time limb settles when the child sees the other person, directly or indirectly. Which limb names someone decides their parental responsibility, when the order ends and whether they can take the child abroad.

The 2014 switch from residence and contact orders

Section 12 of the Children and Families Act 2014 deleted the residence order and contact order definitions from section 8 and put the child arrangements order in their place on 22 April 2014.

The old orders did not lapse with the old words. Under article 6 of the transitional order, a contact order in force that day became a child arrangements order for spending time, and a residence order one for living with.

The welfare test and the presumption of involvement

The child’s welfare is the paramount consideration, and delay is treated as prejudicial to it. Where an application is opposed the court works through a welfare checklist of 7 items, and makes no order unless one would be better for the child than none.

Section 1(2A) presumes, unless the contrary is shown, that the involvement of each parent furthers the child’s welfare, and section 1(2B) defines involvement as involvement of some kind, direct or indirect, expressly not any particular division of a child’s time. An equal split is not the starting point the presumption is often read as promising.

Who can apply, and who needs leave of the court

Section 10 splits applicants into those entitled to apply and those who need permission first.

Who they are	What they can apply for	The condition
A parent, guardian, special guardian, or anyone with parental responsibility	Any section 8 order	None
A person named in an order as someone the child lives with	Any section 8 order	While that part is in force
A person the child has lived with	Any child arrangements order	3 years, not necessarily continuous, within the last 5 years, ended under 3 months ago
A relative or a local authority foster parent	A live with order	1 year immediately before the application
Anyone else, including the child	Any section 8 order	Leave of the court, and for a child, sufficient understanding

A grandparent, aunt or uncle sits in neither of the first two rows. gov.uk says another relative can apply, but where the child has not lived with them, leave comes first.

The MIAM before the C100

Section 10 of the Children and Families Act 2014 requires attendance at a family mediation information and assessment meeting, the MIAM, before a relevant family application. Only an authorised family mediator may hold one, and the application must carry the mediator’s confirmation or a claimed exemption.

The exemptions in rule 3.8 include evidence of domestic abuse, a child subject to a section 47 enquiry or a child protection plan, urgency, an application without notice, a MIAM attended in the previous 4 months, and distance tests turning on a mediator within 15 miles or unable to sit within 15 business days. Ministry of Justice guidance describes a voucher of up to £500 towards mediation in England and Wales.

The application itself is form C100, 51 pages long, and an online one expires 28 days after it is started.

The fees, £270 to apply and £270 to enforce

What is being done	Fee	Form
A new child arrangements order	£270	C100
Within existing proceedings, on notice	£195	C2
By consent, or without notice	£62	C2
Enforcing an order, or compensation for loss	£270	C79
Breach of an existing enforcement order	£119

Every figure comes from the family court fees schedule, updated 13 July 2026. Where one application spans two or more provisions of the Act, only the highest of those fees is paid.

Help with Fees can reduce or remove it. The savings limit is £4,250 where the fee is £1,420 or less and the applicant and any partner are 65 or younger, and £16,000 where either is 66 or older. Income limits are £1,420 single and £2,130 with a partner, plus £425 per child aged 0 to 13 and £710 per child aged 14 or over. Legal aid still reaches family mediation and, after an abusive relationship, advice on children matters, so eligibility for legal aid turns on evidence as much as income.

The court’s timetable in Practice Direction 12B

The Child Arrangements Programme sets the clock, running from the day the application is issued.

Stage	When it happens
Cafcass or CAFCASS Cymru checks	On every application, meaning local authority enquiries and police checks
The safeguarding letter reaches the court	Within 17 working days of Cafcass receiving the case, and at least 3 working days before the hearing
Notice to the respondent	At least 14 days where practicable
First Hearing Dispute Resolution Appointment	Ordinarily week 5 after issue, week 6 at the latest, within 4 weeks where service is abridged
An enforcement application	Listed for hearing within 20 working days of issue

That first hearing is not privileged, so what is said in it may be referred to later. Where safeguarding information has not arrived the court should adjourn, and interim orders wait for the checks unless one protects a child’s safety.

How long it takes, a 35 week mean

gov.uk puts the usual wait at around 10 months. The measured figure is shorter.

The mean time to dispose of a private law case in England and Wales in January to March 2026 was 35 weeks, about 5 weeks faster than the same quarter a year earlier, and 52% finished within 26 weeks. At the end of March, 40,971 cases were open, up 11% on 36,939, and 1,692 of them, 4%, had been running for 100 weeks or longer.

In 49% of disposals that quarter neither party had a lawyer, up 3 percentage points on the year. Going without one turns on the same question as whether a divorce needs a solicitor, meaning how much is still in dispute.

Parental responsibility, surnames and travel abroad

The birth mother has parental responsibility automatically, an unmarried father or second parent acquires it by jointly registering the birth, and step-parents get none by marriage alone.

Section 12 adds to that. Where the order names a father or second female parent as someone the child is to live with and they lack parental responsibility, the court must also make an order giving it, and where they are named only for spending time it decides whether that is appropriate. A non-parent named as the person the child lives with holds it while that part runs, but cannot agree or refuse adoption or appoint a guardian.

While a live with order is in force, nobody may change the child’s surname or remove the child from the United Kingdom without the written consent of everyone with parental responsibility or the leave of the court. The person the child lives with may take them abroad for less than 1 month.

When the order ends, at 16 or at 18

No section 8 order may be made that ends after the child reaches 16 unless the circumstances are exceptional, and that restriction does not apply to a child arrangements order dealing only with where or when the child lives.

Section 91 mirrors it. An order that does run past 16 ends at 18, and section 91(14) lets the court bar a named person from applying again about that child without permission.

Enforcement, 40 to 200 hours of unpaid work

Orders made after 8 December 2008 carry a warning notice, an older one needs form C78 to attach one, and enforcement is form C79 at £270.

Unpaid work follows only where the court is satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that a person failed to comply, and not where they had a reasonable excuse, which they must prove on the balance of probabilities. The hours must total not less than 40 and not more than 200. Compensation for financial loss may not exceed the applicant’s actual loss, is set against what the payer can afford, and is recoverable as a civil debt.

Child arrangements in Scotland and Northern Ireland

The order does not exist in either country, so a parent in Glasgow or Belfast is searching for a name their own courts do not use.

	England and Wales	Scotland	Northern Ireland
The order	Child arrangements order	Residence, contact, specific issue or interdict	Residence, contact, prohibited steps or specific issue
The statute	Children Act 1989, section 8	Children (Scotland) Act 1995, section 11	Children (NI) Order 1995, Article 8
The court	Family court	Sheriff court or Court of Session	High Court, county court or summary jurisdiction
The fee	£270	£176 for the initial writ	£163 High Court, £123 county court
Mediation first	A MIAM unless exempt	No pre-action MIAM, the sheriff may refer mid action	No MIAM duty
Regulator	Solicitors Regulation Authority	Law Society of Scotland	Law Society of Northern Ireland
Service complaints	Legal Ombudsman	Scottish Legal Complaints Commission	Law Society of Northern Ireland

In Scotland the subject matter is parental responsibilities and parental rights. Section 11 of the 1995 Act names each order separately, defines residence and contact for a child under 16 where the English live with limb runs on to 18, and presumes that a child of 12 or more can form a view the sheriff must weigh. Anyone claiming an interest may apply, so there is no leave stage.

A firm on the Glasgow list raises an action by initial writ, and its client is the pursuer. The sheriff court fee is £176 for that writ and £67 for a motion or minute from 1 April 2026. The child welfare hearing does the work of the first hearing, fixed 21 to 49 days after the last date for lodging the notice of intention to defend.

Northern Ireland kept the pre-2014 words. Article 8 defines residence, contact, prohibited steps and specific issue orders, Article 3 carries paramountcy, no delay, the same 7 item checklist and the no order principle, and Article 164 sets the three court tiers.

Fees there are set by the Department of Justice, not HM Courts and Tribunals Service. The 2026 fees order charges £163 to file an Article 8 application in the High Court and £123 in the county court from 1 April 2026, rising to £169 and £128 by April 2028. Firms on the Belfast list answer to the Law Society of Northern Ireland, which takes service and conduct complaints alike, so there is no Legal Ombudsman route.