Lives With and Shared Lives With orders

Dealing with the parenting of children after separation or divorce.

For a couple separating or divorcing who have children together, a key question is who their children will live with. It is sometimes wrongly assumed that children will divide their time equally between both parents. This is often impractical, and it is up to both parents to decide on where the child will live. If an agreement can’t be reached, then it might be settled by making an application to court for a child arrangements order.

The Children Act 1989 brought several changes to the law, which included the Child Arrangement Order which replaced Residence and Contact orders. This change was made to encourage parents to focus on a less confrontational and ridged approach regarding child arrangements.

The focus of the Act is that parental involvement in a child’s life will further the child’s welfare unless there is evidence that this could put the child at risk of harm. This change in law was made to encourage both parents to be involved, and to discourage one parent being excluded.

A Child Arrangement Order will include details such as who the child lives with, (a Lives With order), who they will spend time with, (a Spend Time With order) and other types of contact and when these arrangements will take place. When a child turns 18 the Child Arrangements Order expires, and it is only in exceptional circumstances that a Child Arrangements Order can be applied for if the child is aged 16-18.

Lives With order

A Lives With order gives few additional rights if both parents have parental responsibility. It does however give the parent with the Lives With order granted in their favour the right to take their child out of the UK for up to 28 days without the consent of the other parent.

It does not give the parent with the order the right to exclusively make all the key decisions in a child’s life, for example about schooling, moving overseas or changing the child’s surname.

Shared Lives With order

A Shared Lives With Order does not necessarily mean there is an equal division of the child’s time between parents, but it does mean that one parent cannot marginalise the role that the other parent plays. It reflects the fact that the child has two homes that are equal, and parents need to make decisions which are in the best interests of the child. A Shared Lives With order can help where the parents have a particularly hostile relationship.

If the court has issued a Child Arrangements Order or Lives With order and the child then requests to live with the other parent, then if there is no disagreement from either parent, it isn’t necessary to apply to court to have it amended. It can however be formalised by requesting a variation.

We offer a fixed fee one hour consultation at a charge of £200 plus vat.  For all matters relating to children, get in touch with our team today.

Sunita Chauhan can be contacted at s.chauhan@gullands.com