If one party breaches the child arrangement order, then it is possible to ask the court to enforce it. The court will schedule a preliminary hearing to find out why the order is not being followed and decide what action, if any, needs to be taken. This may involve referring the parents to mediation or imposing fines on a parent who failed to comply without a reasonable excuse. A reasonable excuse could be that the child wasn’t well or there were transport problems that prevented the parent from complying with the order. The Court will not make an Enforcement Order if the person in breach can prove that they had a reasonable excuse. In very serious cases, the non-compliant parent may be sent to prison for contempt of court. Our advice to those in a dispute about child contact arrangements are: Tackle the issue as soon as possible as child contact matters can take time to resolve. Attempt to agree on a plan between yourselves where possible but be wary if the other parent’s proposals fall far short of offering you reasonable time, and if they take several days to reply. If you cannot come to an agreement, your solicitor can write to the other parent, asking for them to agree to child contact. If this fails, virtual mediation is worth considering and actually, it being virtual and not face-to-face can take the heat out of the situation. Propose this through your solicitor and make it clear when you need a response. Note that the court does not require you to attend mediation – the requirement is only to meet with a mediator on your own to find out about mediation and discuss whether that is a possible route for your case. If this still does not resolve things you will need to apply to the family courts to deal with the child contact arrangements. If the matter concerns the summer holidays specifically, your solicitor can seek an urgent hearing, but the likelihood is that you could be waiting eight or more weeks.