Living in a home where domestic abuse happens can have a serious impact on a child’s mental and physical wellbeing, as well as their behaviour. This can continue after the adults' relationship has come to an end, and post-separation abuse and coercive controlling behaviours can continue to remain a factor in the child’s life. The impact can last into adulthood.

What's important is to make sure the abuse stops and that children have a safe and stable environment to grow up in. To ensure that your children are safe from any risk of harm you can apply for a child arrangements order to ensure your child lives with you in a safe environment. It will also limit the amount of contact and restrict the nature of the contact to ensure that it is safe for both you and the children.

What is a child arrangements order?

A child arrangements order is made by the court. It regulates who the child is to live with, spend time with or otherwise have contact with. It can specify when and how often any contact should take place with various people involved in the child’s life.

 There are two different types of child arrangements orders:

• Child arrangements order live with
• Child arrangements order contact with

Child arrangements order live with

The live with aspect of  a child arrangements order determines who the child will live with and who will be their primary carer. The order remains legally binding until the child reaches the age of 18, however the court are very reluctant to enforce such orders beyond the age of 16 unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Child arrangements order contact with

The contact aspect of a child arrangements order determines who the child will have contact with. It can specify when that contact will take place and for how long. The order remains legally binding until the child reaches the age of 16, unless the order specifically states otherwise. After that point, it will be up to the child to decide how much contact they would like to have with the parent, or any other family member they do not live with.

The application

The child arrangements order process involves a number of stages. It is important to get specialist advice from the outset to ensure you navigate the process successfully and get the best possible child arrangements in place.

An application needs to be made to the court for a child arrangements order. However, before an application is made both parties are required to attend a Mediation Information Assessment Meeting (MIAM). This is designed to establish whether the parties might be able to reach an agreement through a process of mediation, rather than going to court. There are exceptions in respect of mediation such as if you have been a victim of domestic abuse or your application is urgent.

If an agreement cannot be reached or you are exempt from mediation, a court form must be completed and submitted to the court with all relevant details. If you choose to appoint Switalskis Solicitors your legal representative will prepare the application on your behalf and arrange for this to be issued and served upon the other party before arranging representation for the first court hearing.

Section 7 report

At the initial hearing if an agreement can not be reached the court may order a Section 7 report is undertaken.

A Section 7 report is ordered when the court wants information about a child’s welfare and what course of action will be best for the child. If social services are involved with your child the Section 7 report will be carried out by social services. If there has been no social services involvement the Section 7 report will be undertaken by CAFCASS who are independent and represent the interests of children.

The court can order a Section 7 report to consider a broad range of issues relating to the child, depending on the issues in your case. The timescale to complete the report is usually 12-16 weeks. The report will make recommendations to the court in respect of what orders to make.

Can a child arrangements order be changed?  

Once this type of order is made, it is possible to depart from the terms without breaching it if all the involved parties agree. However, these changes are not legally binding unless the order is formally varied by the court. This means that if the parties were no longer in agreement, they would have to revert back to the terms of the original order.

It is possible to apply to vary the terms of a child arrangements order by applying back to court. The person making the application would then have to demonstrate that their proposed changes are in the child’s best interests.

Funding

Legal aid is available for these types of orders if you have been a victim of domestic abuse and you can satisfy the legal aid evidence test for proving it, we will be able to talk you through the evidence test.

If you can satisfy the legal aid evidence test we will make an application to the Legal Aid Agency on your behalf for funding to cover the cost of your legal fees.

The application requires you to pass a two-stage test called the means and merits test.

• Means test - you will have to show that you are financially eligible and cannot afford to pay legal costs. You will be required to give information about your income, benefits, savings, property and shares and those of your partner.
• Merits test - this will look at the strengths and weaknesses of your case, including the likelihood of success, the reasonableness of costs and the benefit to you.

We will not undertake any chargeable work until you have secured legal aid so there are no hidden costs should your application for legal aid be unsuccessful. If you are not eligible for legal aid, we can still assist you. Please contact our team for further details of our private children rates.

To speak with a member of the team call us on 0800 138 0458 or email us at ChildCareEnquiries@switalskis.com