Intro to Child Arrangements and Other Orders

Section 8 orders 

Under section 8 Children Act 1989 the court can make 

• A child arrangements order, which is a court order that says how a child’s time is to be divided between their parents. 

It will name the parent that the child is to live with (a lives-with order) and when they are to see the other parent (a spend-time-with order).  

Sometimes parents can’t agree on specific issues such as whether dad can take the child abroad on holiday, or which school the child should attend. The court can also decide these things. 

• A specific issues order decides about a particular issue in the child’s life. 

• A prohibited steps order bans someone from doing something. 

Child arrangements order, specific issues orders, and prohibited steps orders are all known as ‘section 8 orders’ because they are made under section 8 Children Act 1989. 

Reaching agreement 

There are multiple ways to reach agreement, which we set out here [link].  

If you reach agreement and you want the comfort of a court order, you can file an application for an order to be made in the terms you have agreed. This is known as a consent order. The benefit of this is an order is enforceable.  

Going to court for the court to decide matters should be considered the last resort, as it is a stressful process and unlikely to help coparenting. You should only apply to court if you cannot reach agreement despite having tried, or if you are worried about child abduction [insert link] or risk to your child. 

The court expects people to have tried non-court dispute resolution before turning to court, unless it would be unsafe. Even then, some forms of non-court resolution may be safe. 

Child arrangements orders 

A child arrangements order will name the parent that the child is to live with (a lives-with order) and when they are to see the other parent (a spend-time-with order).  

Types of arrangement 

Some children live with one parent, and spend time with the other. This would be called a live-with order and a spend-time-with order (in the same document). 

Some children live with both parents, in different houses at different times. For example, they may spend Sunday to Wednesday with dad and Thursday to Saturday with mum. This is known as a shared lives-with order. These are usually appropriate when the child spends roughly equal time with each parent. Research shows that shared care arrangements work best when the parents can coparent amicably, have enough space in each house, and have flexible working conditions.  

Some children live with a parent and step-parent who both need to make decisions about the child, and have contact with the other parent. The court can make an order in favour of two people who live together, which is called a joint lives-with order. This can be coupled with a spend-time-with order for the non-resident parent. 

What else to include in an order or agreement 

If you have to go to court, it’s a good idea to sweep up everything that you don’t expect to agree on, such as who is to have the child on mother’s day and father’s day; any important family events; and your religious holidays. Having an order that covers everything prevents later problems. 

That said, the judges don’t have time to micromanage everything. You will need to come up with proposals to ask the court to make. 

Specific issues and prohibited steps orders 

Sometimes parents cannot agree on certain issues such as what school the child attends, what religion they are to be raised in, whether they should go abroad on holiday, or whether they should have particular medical treatment. 

Sometimes parents agree on most of these things, but can’t agree on one particular thing. 

 The court can instead decide these things and make a ‘specific issues order’ or a ‘prohibited steps’ order.  

A specific issues order decides about a particular issue such as what school the child attend. The court makes an order and the parents have to follow it. 

A prohibited steps order bans a person from doing something. These are normally made against holders of parental responsibility, as people without PR aren’t allowed to make many decisions about a child (see our page on PR). For example, a PSO might ban a parent from removing the child from a particular school. PSOs can deal with one issue or prevent a holder of PR from exercising any PR. 

You can see that specific issues and prohibited steps cover the same sorts of things. We recommend applying for a specific issues order if you are in favour of something happening. If you want to stop your ex from doing something then apply for a PSO. if you apply for the wrong one, don't worry. The court can make either order on either application.  

How long does an order last? 

Most section 8 orders last until the child is 16. The court can make orders that last longer in exceptional circumstances. 

If the only order is a lives-with order, it will last until the child is 18. 

There are special rules about what happens to an order if the parents get back together.  

How the court decides 

The court has to do whatever is best for your child. This is known as the ‘welfare principle’ and it is the fundamental idea in child law. 

The court has a list of things that can help it decide what is best, which is known as the welfare checklist. We have a short guide on this [link]. 

However, what is best is about your child as an individual. This means that the court can potentially take into account everything in deciding what is best. The checklist is useful but doesn’t limit things. 

What’s best for the adults is only relevant if it has a knock-on effect on the child. This means that you must explain to the court how what you want benefits your child. 

The court also has to follow these principles: 

• That while some delay is inevitable, delay is generally bad. Unfortunately Norfolk has the longest delays in the country in child arrangements, due to financial cuts in the court service. You should expect your case to take up to one year. 

• That it’s best for a child to have both parents involved. This is a controversial principle called the presumption of involvement that is going to be abolished soon because it has caused harm to victims of domestic abuse.  

• That it will only make an order if it’s better for the child to make an order than not. This means where everyone agrees, sometimes the court will not put that into an order. (In reality, the court does put things in orders virtually all of the time.) 

More information 

For more information, please see this guide for separated parents and family court.