The impact of social distancing on child arrangement orders

It goes without saying that the COVID19 outbreak across the globe creates unchartered territory for separated parents to navigate. If you have an existing child arrangements order in place, you may be concerned about the impact of the government recommendations of “social distancing” and “self-isolation” on your contact with your children.

The most recent advice from CAFCASS, the child and family court advisory service, recommends that: 

“Unless there are justified medical/self-isolation issues – or some future nationally issued guidance or expectation associated with leaving the house in your area – children should also maintain their usual routine of spending time with each of their parents. If there is a Child Arrangements Order in place this should be complied with unless to do so would put your child, or others at risk. This will help your child to feel a sense of consistency, whilst also reassuring them that the parent they don't always live with is safe and healthy.”

This means that unless your child needs to isolate for good reason, contact with the non-resident parent should still take place as per the court order.  However, it would be expected that sensible precautions are taken with handovers and a common sense approach adopted. 

It may be that the current child arrangement may need to be temporarily varied. For example, if the order stipulates that a child should be collected from school but the schools are now closed until further notice, parties should communicate with one another (or communicate via solicitors) to reach an alternative arrangement.

If the contact ordered by the court cannot take place due to genuine medical reason, parents should consider ways to work around this such as facetime/video calls and how the missed contact can be made up in the future.

Communication between parents will be key to navigate the coming weeks and months, and parents should be reminded to always put the best interests of their children first in this unprecedented time. 

If you would like any further advice in relation to child arrangement orders in light of the governments advice on COVID19 and social distancing, our specialist family lawyers are happy to help. Our lawyers have offices based in Wolverhampton and Cradley Heath and provide assistance to clients across the West Midlands including: Stourbridge, Kidderminster, Birmingham, Dudley and Walsall.

For all new enquiries, please call 01902 328 355 or 01384 340569, alternatively you can complete our online enquiry form and a member of our team will respond.

Our lawyers are offering remote telephone appointments to assist clients during this time.