What is a parenting plan?
A Guide for Separated and Divorced Parents on Parenting Plans
If you are separated or intend to divorce, you may need a parenting plan. In this guide, our specialist Family Law Solicitors explain how a parenting plan works and answer your questions on childcare arrangements after a separation or divorce.
Contact Online and London Family Law Solicitors for children law legal advice.
What is a parenting plan?
A parenting plan is a written agreement that outlines how separated or divorced parents will share the care of their children and raise them in separate households.
A parenting plan can help your children because:
- Both parents talk through areas of parenting that may create conflict in future and agree on compromises and formulate a plan.
- The children understand that both their parents are following parenting rules, and they can't play one parent off against the other.
- With a comprehensive parenting plan, parents are less likely to need to apply to court for a child arrangement order, a specific issue order or a prohibited steps order to resolve a dispute over the parenting arrangements.
Types of parenting plans
A parenting plan is a good idea, whether you plan to share custody 50/50 or if one parent will provide 90% of the care and the other parent has contact with the children.
Types of parenting plans include:
- Equal shared parenting
- Co-parenting
- Nesting parenting or parenting in one household, with the children staying in the family home and the parents moving in during their parenting time
- Primary parent and parent with contact
- Distance parenting
Every plan should be bespoke to the family situation and the children’s needs. Most plans will cover the same list of topics, but may have very different content depending on the agreed parenting arrangements.
How a Family Lawyer can help you create a parenting plan
A Family Lawyer knows what separated and divorced parents fall out about. A parent knows their child best and what arrangements and parenting style will suit them.
A parenting plan can be brief, recording the living and contact arrangements, or it can provide more detailed information. Most London Divorce Solicitors recommend a detailed plan so that parents can negotiate potential problem areas before they become a dispute, resulting in one parent deciding to apply to the family court for a child arrangement order, prohibited steps order or specific issue order.
An experienced Children's Lawyer can help you identify the key parenting aspects that are important to you and ensure that these are covered in the plan.
What should go into the parenting plan?
Specialist London children solicitors and family mediators will advise you on the areas or topics that it is helpful to include in a parenting plan and help you reach a compromise so you can agree on the plan.
Some of the topics that are covered in parenting plans include:
- Parenting time – how will the children spend their weeks? Will parenting time be shared, or will the children have one home base and have contact, such as on alternating weekends? Who will parent the children? Will they be cared for by parents only, or is parenting by grandparents, or attendance at after-school and holiday clubs, agreed?
- Holidays – is it agreed that both parents can take the children on holiday? Are there any restrictions on the destination, such as within the UK or the EU?
- Special occasions – who will look after the children on special dates such as Christmas, Eid, Passover, Sukkot or birthdays?
- Health – who is responsible for booking doctors and dental appointments? Is a parent obliged to tell the other parent if the child has a medical appointment or attends A&E?
- Schooling- have both parents agreed on the choice of school? Will one parent take the lead with school communication? Will both parents attend parent evenings and school events?
- Religion – will the children follow a faith, and if so, how will they practise their faith?
- Diet – do the children have special dietary requirements? If the child is being brought up as a vegan in one household, will the other parent respect that?
- Discipline – what are the agreed methods of discipline? What is the agreed-upon loss of privileges? What are the rules on smartphones, access to the internet, bedtimes and all the other areas of potential parental conflict?
- Changes – how will changes be handled, such as the introduction of a new partner, remarriage or the birth of a step-sibling?
- How will parents communicate – will communication be limited to text or email? How will parents resolve communication issues?
Whilst the parenting plan cannot anticipate all eventualities, it can say how you will communicate changes to your life and how you will discuss the impact of those changes on the parenting plan. For example, if one of you gets a new job with different hours of work or decides to move house.
Negotiating a parenting plan
The parenting plan needs to be detailed enough to be straightforward to follow, yet flexible enough to allow for exceptions and emergencies, and to evolve as children grow older or new relationships are formed.
Family Law Solicitors will advise you that there is no set formula to enable parents to create the ideal parenting plan and parenting schedule. That is because each family is unique, and your plan needs to meet the needs of your children and family.
Contact Online and London Family Law Solicitors for children law legal advice.
Frequently Asked Questions on Parenting Plans
Is a parenting plan legally binding?
A parenting plan is not legally binding; however, if one parent fails to follow it, the other parent can apply for a child arrangement order, a specific issue order, or a prohibited steps order. The parenting plan can be used as evidence of what was agreed upon, and it will be for the other parent to demonstrate why the agreed-upon arrangements are no longer in the best interests of the children.
What is co-parenting in a parenting plan?
Co-parenting does not have to be equal parenting. A mum or dad can co-parent even if their job or home location means the children cannot spend an equal amount of time with them.
Co-parenting means you are trying to make joint parenting decisions and agree on important aspects of parenting, such as if you are trying to adopt a gentle style of parenting.
How do you change a parenting plan?
Ideally, as children grow older and their needs or your circumstances change, you will negotiate changes to your parenting plan. If they cannot be agreed upon, either parent can ask the family court to make a child arrangement order, specific issue order or prohibited steps order.
Should children have a say in the parenting plan?
It's good to involve older children in the parenting plan so they know the ground rules and what is expected of them. They may want to change the arrangements because of sporting or other extracurricular activities.
Contact Online and London Family Law Solicitors for children law legal advice.
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