Glossary · UK
What is Child Arrangements Order?
A family court order setting out where a child will live and how much time they spend with each parent, replacing the older "custody" and "residence/contact order" terminology.
Full Definition
A Child Arrangements Order is a family court order made under the Children Act 1989 that sets out the practical arrangements for a child following parental separation, most commonly specifying who the child will live with (a "live with" arrangement, which can be with one parent or shared between both) and when and how they will spend time with the other parent or other significant people, such as grandparents (a "spend time with" arrangement). It replaced the earlier system of "residence orders" and "contact orders" in 2014, and both types of provision are unified within a single order, meaning the same document can cover living arrangements and contact time rather than requiring two separate orders. Most separating parents are expected to try to agree arrangements between themselves, often with the help of mediation, since a court application is intended as a last resort; before applying to court, most parents must first attend a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting (MIAM), except in cases involving domestic abuse or urgency, and the court will only make an order if it decides doing so is better for the child than making no order at all, applying the "welfare checklist" and treating the child's welfare as its paramount consideration throughout. A Child Arrangements Order specifying who a child lives with is separate from child maintenance, which is a financial matter usually dealt with by the Child Maintenance Service rather than the family court, though the arrangement recorded in the order (particularly the number of overnight stays with each parent) can directly affect how much maintenance is payable, since the statutory formula reduces the amount payable where the paying parent has the child overnight for 52 nights or more a year. Breaching a Child Arrangements Order without good reason can result in the court varying the order, ordering the breaching parent to undertake unpaid work, or in serious repeated cases, being found in contempt of court.