When the family court makes a child arrangement order the contact or residence arrangements are not set in stone for the remainder of your child’s childhood. You can apply back to court and ask the judge for more contact time with your child or for shared custody or residence.
Family law solicitor, Angelique Holm, is an expert in children law. In this blog, she examines how you should go about trying to review and change your existing contact or residence arrangements and when to apply back to court to vary an existing child arrangement order.
For children and family law advice call Angelique Holm on 0203 488 8620 or email
info@hopeholm.co.uk or visit our website Hopeholm Family Law.
Applying to court to vary a child arrangement order
Specialist children law solicitor, Angelique Holm, receives inquiries from parents frustrated that after the making of a child arrangement order their ex-partner will not ‘move on’ and agree to an increase in contact.
Some of the reasons given by parents for refusing to change a child arrangement order include:
- A family judge made the court order and only a judge can change it – that is not the case as you could either submit an agreed joint court application to vary the child arrangement order or record in solicitor correspondence or in a parenting plan what the new agreed parenting arrangements are
- The child is not ready for a change – this may be a parent being overprotective or not recognising the other parent’s parenting abilities and how they can cater for their child’s changing needs as they grow up
- The child does not want change – the child may have said this to one parent because the child knows their parent does not want to change the residence or contact arrangements
- The child has other commitments – these commitments could be sporting activities after school or at the weekend or spending time with friends or grandparents. Whatever the child’s commitments this should not prevent a discussion about changes to the child arrangement order. For example, you taking the child to football sessions or ballet lessons during your contact time so your child does not miss out on these activities. For example, asking your partner to ensure that your child spends time with their extended family during the parent’s custody or contact time rather than their extended family impinging on your relationship and contact with your child
Talking to an ex-partner about changing residence or
contact arrangements
It can be awkward to raise the topic of changing a child arrangement order and equally difficult to get your ex-partner to see your point of view.
It may be tempting to tell your ex-partner what you want and the start date for the new child contact or shared custody arrangements. That is generally a bad idea as it may come across as you trying to dominate or control the arrangements, despite you feeling justified in doing so because the current child arrangement order no longer meets your needs or those of your child.
If you go ahead and unilaterally change a child arrangement order your ex-partner could apply to court to enforce the order. While you could then apply to the court to vary the order it means you are starting your court application on the ‘’wrong foot’’ as technically you are in the wrong as you have not followed the original court order.
While talking to an ex-partner can be extremely frustrating it is an essential part of reviewing contact or custody arrangements. If you know that you and your ex-partner tend to wind one another up in any direct discussions then a letter from a solicitor explaining what changes you would like and why may be the best way forward. The letter needs to look at things from what is best for your child. For example, you may want overnight midweek contact. The change may be easier for you than rushing to return the child after a short after-school visit but your request needs to look at the benefits of your child being able to enjoy the experience of spending time with both parents during the week and your being able to sort out homework completion and all the other things that are associated with a normal weekday.
Help with talking to your ex-partner about changing a child arrangement order
There is a lot of help available to assist you in talking to your former partner about changes to a child arrangement order. If you will find it difficult to talk directly then there is the option of a roundtable meeting with you both present with your family law solicitors or family mediation.
If you can reach an agreement on changes to the child arrangement order then ideally the order should be varied by an agreed application to court. If your ex-partner will not agree to cooperate with this then as a minimum you need written agreement to the changes and to record how things will continue to develop. For example, you may have negotiated weekend contact starting on Friday after school rather than on a Saturday but want to record that the plan is that after a few weeks or months, the contact will extend to you dropping your child off at school on a Monday rather than a Sunday return time.
Varying a child arrangement order
If talking does not work you may be left with no option other than to apply to the court for a new child arrangement order.
The Family Procedure Rules (FPR) set out the rules for making a family law court application. On 29 April 2024, the FPR was changed to encourage parents to use non-court dispute resolution to reach family law agreements, including sorting out child custody or contact disputes.
The FPR previously required the applicant applying for the child arrangement order to try family mediation before they went to court and asked the judge to make or vary a child arrangement order – unless the situation fell within a limited number of exceptions. These exceptions have now been reduced and the FPR has also been changed to place greater emphasis on the need to consider various non-court dispute resolution options before applying for a court order. These alternatives include family arbitration.
You may be sceptical about using non-court options because your ex-partner was so awkward in the past that you had to apply for a child arrangement order. Whilst your scepticism may be understandable, in most scenarios you will still need to try to negotiate parenting time before you apply back to court to vary your child arrangement order.
If a court application is necessary the process will probably be like your original application for a child arrangement order. For example, there may be a series of directions hearings, a requirement to file a statement of evidence or the court may order a report from CAFCASS to look again at what contact or shared parenting arrangement is now in your child’s best interests.
It is always best to focus your application to vary the child arrangement order on looking forward, even if you were unhappy that you did not get a 50/50 shared care arrangement or as much contact as you wanted at the time that the previous child arrangement order was made. That’s because your application to vary the child arrangement order is not an appeal against the original decision but is based on a change requiring a variation in the order.
For advice on child arrangement orders and resolving family law disputes advice call Angelique Holm on 0203 488 8620 or email info@hopeholm.co.uk or visit our website Hopeholm Family Law.