Supporting What Matters Most to Your Children
When family structures change, thoughtful planning helps children maintain stability and feel secure with both parents in their lives.
Return to HomeWhat This Service Delivers
Our child arrangements support helps you create practical, sustainable patterns of care that prioritize your children's wellbeing while respecting both parents' important role in their lives.
Child-Centred Focus
Every recommendation considers what serves your children's developmental needs and emotional security during this transition.
Practical Solutions
We help you develop arrangements that work with your schedules, locations, and family circumstances while maintaining consistency for children.
Long-Term Stability
Our approach creates frameworks that can adapt as children grow and circumstances change, reducing the need for future disputes.
Understanding Your Concerns
After separation, one of the most important questions parents face is how to maintain meaningful relationships with their children while providing the stability and routine that helps children feel secure. You want what's right for your children, but determining the practical details can feel overwhelming.
Perhaps you're wondering how often children should spend time with each parent, how to manage school runs and activities, or how to handle holidays and special occasions. You might be concerned about maintaining consistency across two households, or worried about how changes will affect your children's sense of security.
Communication with your former partner may be straightforward, or it might be challenging. Either way, putting formal arrangements in place helps everyone know what to expect and reduces potential for misunderstandings that could affect the children.
What you need is guidance that helps you create arrangements centred on your children's needs, while being realistic about practical considerations and respectful of both parents' importance in their lives.
Our Approach to Child Arrangements
We help parents establish arrangements that serve their children's wellbeing while being practical and sustainable over time. Our approach adapts to your family's specific circumstances and the level of cooperation between parents.
Understanding Your Children's Needs
We start by considering your children's ages, developmental stages, and individual needs. Arrangements for a toddler look different from those for a teenager, and we help you think through what will work for your specific family.
Creating Practical Parenting Plans
When parents can communicate constructively, we support you in developing detailed parenting plans that address living arrangements, time with each parent, school responsibilities, activities, and decision-making. Having everything clearly outlined reduces confusion and helps maintain stability.
Support Through Mediation
Where there are differences of opinion, family mediation can help parents reach agreements with the support of a neutral professional. We can recommend suitable mediators and explain how the process works.
Representation When Needed
If court proceedings become necessary, we represent you with the aim of reaching sustainable solutions. Our solicitors have experience with complex situations including relocation applications and cases involving safeguarding concerns.
What Working Together Looks Like
Our process is designed to help you develop child arrangements that serve your family's needs, whether through direct agreement, mediation, or court proceedings.
Understanding Your Situation
We begin by learning about your children, your current arrangements, and what's working or not working. We'll discuss your concerns and what outcomes would serve your children's wellbeing.
Exploring Options
We help you think through different arrangement patterns, considering what might work given your children's ages, school locations, work schedules, and other practical factors. There's rarely one perfect solution, but we can help identify what might work for your family.
Developing Arrangements
Whether through direct negotiation, mediation, or court proceedings, we work toward creating clear arrangements that address where children will live, time with each parent, how decisions will be made, and how you'll handle changes or disputes.
Documentation and Implementation
Once arrangements are agreed, we ensure they're properly documented. If court orders are needed, we handle the legal formalities. You'll have clear written arrangements that everyone understands.
Throughout this process, you'll have someone who understands family law and can help you focus on what truly serves your children's interests, even when emotions are running high.
Investment in Your Children's Wellbeing
Our child arrangements support provides focused assistance to help you establish sustainable patterns of care that serve your children's needs.
For child arrangements support
What's Included:
Initial consultation to understand your family's circumstances and children's needs
Guidance on age-appropriate arrangements and what courts typically consider
Support with direct negotiation and parenting plan development
Advice on mediation options and how the process works
Representation in straightforward child arrangements applications
Documentation of agreed arrangements
Ongoing communication and updates throughout the process
This covers most situations where parents can communicate reasonably well. Complex cases involving relocation, safeguarding concerns, or contested proceedings may require additional support, which we'll discuss transparently from the outset.
We understand that managing costs matters when you're reorganizing family finances. We can discuss payment arrangements that work for your circumstances.
What Success Looks Like
Effective child arrangements create stability for children while being practical for both parents. Here's what we've learned from supporting families through this process.
Child-Centred Outcomes
Arrangements work when they consider children's developmental needs, maintain important relationships, and provide consistency across both households. We help you think through what this means for your specific children.
Younger children often benefit from more frequent contact with both parents, while teenagers may need arrangements that accommodate their growing independence and social lives.
Realistic Timescales
When parents can agree directly or through mediation, arrangements can often be in place within two to four months. Court proceedings typically take longer, usually between six and twelve months depending on complexity and court availability.
We help set realistic expectations based on your specific situation and the pathway you're following.
Sustainable Arrangements
The arrangements that work over time are those that both parents can maintain practically and that flex as children grow. We help you build in mechanisms for handling changes and resolving disagreements.
Clear documentation reduces future disputes and gives everyone certainty about what's expected.
Legal Framework
Courts make decisions based on what serves children's welfare, considering factors like their wishes and feelings, physical and emotional needs, the likely effect of any change, and each parent's capability.
We help you understand how courts approach these considerations in your particular circumstances.
Measuring Progress
You'll know things are moving in the right direction when you have clarity about arrangements, your children understand what to expect, and you've established ways to communicate about parenting matters constructively.
Our Commitment to Your Family
Children's Interests First
We keep the focus on what serves your children's wellbeing, helping you make decisions that support their development and maintain important relationships.
Constructive Approach
We encourage solutions that reduce conflict and help parents work together where possible. This typically leads to better outcomes for children and more sustainable arrangements.
Experience with Complexity
Our solicitors have handled complex cases including relocation applications, safeguarding concerns, and situations involving special educational needs. We adapt our approach to your family's specific circumstances.
No-Pressure Consultation
Your initial conversation helps you understand your options without any obligation to proceed. We'll discuss what might work for your family and what the process would involve.
If you have concerns about how we're handling your case or the advice you're receiving, we encourage you to raise them. We're committed to addressing any issues openly and professionally.
Taking the First Step
Seeking advice about child arrangements doesn't mean you're creating conflict. It means you're taking a thoughtful approach to ensuring your children's needs are met during a time of transition.
Reach Out
Contact us by phone or using the form below. We'll arrange a time to talk that suits your schedule.
Discuss Your Situation
We'll listen to your circumstances, understand your concerns, and explain what options might be available to you.
Plan Together
If you decide to proceed, we'll work with you to develop arrangements that serve your children's needs and work for your family.
Many parents find that having a conversation about their situation helps clarify their thinking, even if they're not ready to take immediate action.
Early advice can help you avoid common pitfalls and understand what approaches are likely to work in your circumstances.
Ready to Discuss Your Children's Arrangements?
We're here to help you think through what arrangements might work for your family. Your conversation with us is confidential and without obligation.
Start a ConversationOr call us on +44 117 329 4687
Explore Our Other Services
We offer focused support across different areas of family law to help you navigate various aspects of separation.
Divorce and Separation Guidance
Considered legal support for couples who have decided to part ways, focusing on achieving fair outcomes with minimal conflict.
Financial Settlement Consultation
Thorough analysis regarding division of matrimonial assets, helping you understand what a fair outcome might look like in your circumstances.