Live with – the Court can decide which parent the child will live with, or if they will live equally with both parents.
Spend time with – when parents cannot agree on the arrangements for the child to spend time with the parent they do not live with, the Court can decide the exact timings.
Most people will be more familiar with the terms residence/custody and contact/access. These terms have been replaced with ‘live with’ and ‘spend time with’.
The Court can also make orders to resolve issues, including:
Prohibited Steps Order – to prevent a parent from acting in a particular manner or to stop them doing something, such as taking the child to live in another country
Specific Issue Order – when parents cannot resolve an issue about the child’s upbringing, such as religion, education or holidays
International child maintenance – if your ex-partner lives abroad and has stopped paying child maintenance, you can apply to the Court to get help in enforcing payments.