Children Matters

If you have any issues relating to the care arrangements of your children, I am here to help. It is always best to try mediation first to resolve your issues because you will be talking in detail with the other parent in front of a third, neutral party (the mediator) who will help you making your own decisions in the best interest of your children. I will assist you in finding a suitable mediator for your needs having trained as a mediator in England and in France. Sometimes mediation is not possible, and I can represent you in Court proceedings. Care and financial arrangements for the children are always two separate issues in England.

Care arrangements

About the care arrangements, I will explain all the range orders that a court can make depending on your particular situation. It can be a residence order, a live with order, a contact order, a specific issue order (for example when you want to move abroad or relocate in your home country with the children), a prohibited step order (for example not to attend your children’s school, not to travel abroad…), a guardianship order (for example when you require assistance from a member of your family to look after your child on a day-to-day basis).

When the court deals with these issues, your children’s welfare is the paramount consideration. The Children Act 1989 provides a welfare checklist as follow:

• The ascertainable wishes and feeling of the child (in light of his age and understanding)
• The child’s physical, emotional, and educational needs
• The likely effect on the child due to any change in the circumstances
• The child’s age, sex, background, and any characteristics
• Any harm which the child has suffered or is at risk of suffering
• How capable each of the child’s parents are and any relevant person in the child’s life
• The range of powers available to the Court.

If your issue is very urgent, I will ascertain whether we can issue urgent proceedings in order to have a hearing within 48 hours.

If there is no urgency, the process will last for several months as I will file an online C100 form. The current court fee as of January 2024 is £232. I will check if we need to file an additional form C1A in respect of allegations of harm, depending on your personal circumstances. There will be 3 hearings, and it is always possible at any point of time to lodge an agreement.

• Hearing 1: FHDRA

The first hearing is called First Hearing Dispute Resolution Appointment (FHDRA). Before attending Court, CAFCASS will file a safeguarding letter after having called you to discuss your case. CAFCASS is an authority in England and Wales that advises the Court about the welfare of children. CAFCASS stands for Children And Family Court Advisory and Support Service. At the early stage, CAFCASS will check if your family is known from the police and or from the social services. I will guide you before your call with the CAFCASS officer.

• Hearing 2: DRA

The second hearing is called Dispute Resolution Hearing. Usually, this hearing will take place after the reception of expert report and of a CAFCASS report about the children welfare. You will also have filed a statement explaining in detail your case and I will assist you with the drafting.

• Hearing 3: final hearing

The final hearing can be listed for several hours or several days. The maximum length of a final hearing I have been involved in was for 28 days. The court will decide on all outstanding issues of your matter. You can be required at this stage of the process to give oral evidence at Court.

I am available to discuss your matter in detail. Feel free to contact me.

Financial arrangements

You may want to discuss child maintenance. If both parents live in England the first step will be to obtain an assessment from the Child Maintenance Service. The service has an online calculator very easy to use. (link to online CMS Calculator).The child maintenance is calculated on the basis of the gross income of the “non-resident parent”, the number of children and the number of overnight stays. The child maintenance calculation does not take into account the income or resources of the receiving parent.

In most of the cases the figure obtained from the assessment is agreed between you and the other parent and there is no need to pay the CMS (Child Maintenance Service) to recover the payments.

For a long time in England the Child Maintenance Service was producing a nil calculation in case of equal share, that means in case of a shared care with equal number of nights spent with each parent. Now it is different and the parent who is financially in needs can obtain an assessment from the Child Maintenance Service.

The Child Maintenance Service has a cap in the assessment produced. The maximum assessment will be for a weekly gross income of £3,000. If you think you need more child maintenance that the maximum assessment it will be possible to seek a “top-up” payment from the Court.

The child maintenance is a periodical payment received every month that will help you paying for your children basic needs (housing, clothing, feeding, electricity…) If you want to ask the other parent to pay private school fees for your children you can seek and order from the Court.

If the parent of your children does not live in England and Wales, the Child Maintenance Service will not have jurisdiction, and you will need to seek a child maintenance order from the Court.

In England, financial remedies for children are wider than a child maintenance payment. The schedule I of the Children Act 1989 allows you to ask for a lump sum payment and or a transfer of property limited in time if these orders are for the benefit of the children.

The most common financial provision for unmarried parents is that one parent will purchase a property for the parent in care and the child, which will be returned to the other parent when the child reaches the age of 18 or 21.

If you want to seek financial remedies for the benefit of your children, you will need to first attend a mediation appointment before filing your application at Court. The proceedings will be divided in 3 stages that are similar to the financial remedies upon divorce. I will guide you through the process.

• Hearing 1: FA First Appointment

This hearing will take place after the exchange of your and the other parent’s respective financial situations by way of Forms E1. The court will ascertain whether you need to produce an expert report on your finances.

• Hearing 2: FDR Financial Dispute Resolution

The judge will give an indication of what would be fair and reasonable to provide for the benefit of your children in light of the confidential offers you will have exchanged before attending Court. Most of the cases settle at this stage. The judge at an FDR hearing cannot be the trial judge in the same matter.

• Hearing 3: Final hearing

The court will make order for the benefit of the children. These can include a lump sum payment to pay for a car with the parent in care for example.

If you want to discuss financial arrangements for the benefit of your children with a family law solicitor, feel free to contact me.