Arrangements for children

While divorce or separation is the most common reason people need to make legal arrangements for children, it’s not the only one. Sometimes parents struggle to make a decision together – for example about medical treatment. At these difficult times, we take a sensitive approach that keeps the most important people at the heart of the process: the children.

Among other things, we advise on different kinds of order that cover:

• Where a child lives, who they live with and how much they see each parent
• Making big decisions about a child’s welfare, like medical treatment or their education
• What a parent can or can’t do – like moving a child abroad.

While that mostly involves parents, we also make applications on behalf of grandparents or stepparents. And we’ve developed close links to resources many of our families benefit from – like psychotherapists and family therapists, couples’ counsellors and independent social workers.

In cases where a child is at risk of harm, we will act quickly to ensure that measures are put in place to protect them, and all necessary notifications are made.

Sometimes the legal process can begin before someone officially becomes a parent. We have expertise in surrogacy and adoption, including international adoption, and work closely with clients looking to adopt or use surrogacy; both processes which are highly legally regulated and can take a heavy emotional toll.