Child Arrangement Order Applications By Relatives & Extended Family Members

Relatives will, from time to time, want to apply for a Child Arrangements Order in Family Proceedings. This could be for the child to live with them (‘residence’) or spend time or otherwise have contact with them (‘contact’).

There will be a number of reasons for these applications being made and each case will turn on its own facts. A relative could be concerned that a child is not being properly looked after by his or her parents and therefore wants the child to live with them instead, rather than see the child get taken into the Local Authority Care system.

Alternatively, it could be that the relative was seeing the child on a regular basis and this contact is now being denied by one or both of the parents. This sometimes happens when the parents’ relationship breaks down and grandparents can especially suffer in these circumstances.

The parents may have cut the extended family out of the children’s lives without necessarily thinking about how this impacts the children themselves. An order for contact could restore that relationship.

Child arrangement order applications by extended family members

If you are wondering whether you class as a relative for the purposes of the Children Act 1989, a relative is any of the following:

Provided that there is no previous Court order to prevent an application from being made there is no restriction on a relative making an application to the Court for a Child Arrangements Order for contact or residence.

However, a prospective applicant may need the Court’s permission to make their application and should also have attended a Mediation Information Assessment Meeting (MIAM) before embarking on Court proceedings.

Other adults may also be able to apply for substantive orders but will almost always need the Court’s permission first.

If you are worried about the children in your family and want to know what your rights are regarding applying to the Court, it is advisable to take independent and expert advice as soon as you can.

You should always take legal advice to find out whether the Court’s permission is needed to make the application at first instance. Generally, a step-parent can apply to the Court without permission and so can any relative if the child has lived with them for a year or more if they are applying for residence.

If permission to apply is needed then that will be dealt with separately on its own merits. The Court has the power to do with the permission application without a hearing if that is felt to be appropriate.

If permission is granted then the substantive application may then be filed with the Court in the usual way.

If you are a family member wishing to make an application relating to a child then it is always best to take independent legal advice just as soon as possible.