Meadows Fraser are Children Solicitors based in Weybridge and serving Cobham, Esher and surrounding Surrey areas. We deal with access to children (“contact”), adoption, guardianship, wardship and other issues relating to children.
Access to children (“Contact”)
When a marriage or civil partnership ends or an unmarried couple split up, the welfare of their children is paramount. This is recognised in law, in the Children Act 1989.
During what is likely to be a difficult and stressful time, most parents would wish to put their differences aside to agree about arrangements for their children. However, consulting a solicitor experienced in family law will ensure that the child’s best interests are at the heart of any such agreement.
The courts are unlikely to interfere in a voluntary arrangement, as the law considers that these are more likely to succeed than those imposed by the courts. Mediation may also be useful in achieving a voluntary agreement.
However, if all else fails, it may be necessary to go to court to apply for a specific order where legal advice is essential. The most common orders are:
- a residence order, which the court uses to set out arrangements for where the child will live, for example with one parent or partner, both parents (with the order specifying how much time the child will live with each one) or each partner, with a separate order for each parent or partner, saying how much time the child will live with them.
- a contact order: if an absent parent is prevented from seeing, talking on the phone or writing to their children, the court can be asked to order contact arrangements.
Orders can also be made to allow contact between the child and other relatives, such as grandparents, and friends.
Any proceedings involving children are likely to be emotionally demanding, but we can help you by providing practical, professional advice designed to help you reach a solution that is in your children’s best interests.
Even if you feel that you have no alternative to going to court, our experience in family law may help to settle the problem before it goes that far, by exploring every option to work with your ex-partner to make joint decisions about your children.
The adoption process makes a child legally the child of new parents, by transferring parental responsibility to the adopters.
Anyone aged over 21 can apply to adopt but joint applications can only be made by married couples and civil partners. Where unmarried couples adopt, only one partner can become the adopter. The child to be adopted must be under 18.
In many cases, adoption is used to give a child a new family when they cannot live with their own parents, for example when they are in local authority care. It may also be used to give a step-parent parental responsibility for a stepchild. International adoption, with families adopting children from outside the UK, is another type of adoption that has recently become more high profile.
The adoption process has significant implications for all those concerned as adoption orders cannot be reversed, except in extremely rare circumstances, so seeking legal advice is essential.
Our experience means that we can advise and support prospective adoptive parents and birth parents considering adoption as an option for their children, in all aspects of the process.
Thinking about the future wellbeing your children is an important part of being a parent, which is why it is important to make arrangements for their care in the event of your death.
Even though it is unlikely that both parents will die at the same time, making a will allows you to appoint a legal guardian or guardians for children aged under 18, who will be responsible for their upbringing if this should happen. Making such arrangements is particularly important for single parents.
Setting out your wishes in this way means that the person or people of your choice will look after your children, rather than the decision being left to your surviving family. The person or people you choose must understand what is involved, including financial responsibility, and be in full agreement with your wishes.
We can advise you on the issues involved in making your choice of guardian or guardians and assist you in drawing up a will that sets out your wishes.
We can also advise on Special Guardianship Orders (SGO), a new legal option intended to provide stability of care for children where adoption is not suitable. The SGO appoints one or more people as a special guardian, with parental responsibility for making day-to-day decisions on all aspects of caring for the child.
An SGO is particularly appropriate where birth parents, or others with parental responsibility, cannot provide the child with the long-term security of a permanent home but links between them need to be maintained. It will benefit children in long-term foster care or who are cared for by their wider family on a permanent basis.
People entitled to apply for an SGO include a local authority foster parent with whom the child has lived for at least a year and anyone with whom the child has lived for three out of the last five years.
Wardship is a High Court action making a minor (a child under the age of 18) the subject of a wardship order.
The order ensures that the court becomes the legal guardian of the child, with the child’s day-to-day care carried out by one or more individuals or a local authority. As long as the minor remains a ward of court, all decisions regarding their upbringing must be approved by the court, for example a transfer to a different school or medical treatment.
Wardship is made only under special circumstances, for example where there is a risk that the child may be taken abroad. Wardship imposes an automatic prohibition on taking the child out of the United Kingdom.
Please contact us for further information on how we can help you.
