Changes to family law on 22 April

[niceboots]

My ex and I have been separated for almost 3 years, but haven't got around to getting divorced. We do 50/50 shared care and it works well. When we do get divorced, will we get a Child Arrangements order or how will it work after the courts change later this month? I guess we'd have wanted a SRO, but is that now gone with Child Arrangement orders? How does it work? Does it still mean that, in the usual case, one parent is no longer awarded "residency"? (In inverted commas because I know it doesn't necessarily correlate to time) I can't find much information online other than brief outlines.

You don't have to have any order. You only have to go to court if you can't agree. I have a shared care arrangement with my exH and we've never had or needed a court order. We both have parental responsibility as both children were born after Dec 2003 and he's on the birth certificates.

If you don't agree and do need to go through court, CAO are pretty much nothing more than a change of name. They won't say residency or contact but they will work in exactly the same way as they did before.

Ahh, ok. I thought we'd still get something official (an order) saying what the arrangements were that we had agreed (even though we are in agreement on the statement of arrangements).

We're in total agreement over finances, but will get a consent order (for a clean break) at some point too so thought it may be the same.

They won't say residency or contact but they will work in exactly the same way as they did before.
Yes, but before some people got residency and the other parent contact and some couples got shared residency orders. Residency gives some additional legal rights so I was wondering how those would be decided/worded on the child arrangement orders.

Most separated parents agree arrangements for children between themselves. Only if no agreement can be reached will the courts make an order if it makes it better for the child. The changes next month just means that instead of Residence/Shared Residence/Contact Orders the courts will make a Child Arrangement Order which will determine where a child lives and when they have contact.

One change that would effect you is that currently there is a Statement of Arrangements that is submitted to court along with the divorce petition. The Statement of Arrangements sets out what arrangements have been made for children so the court can ensure adequate provision has been made for them. From 22nd April the Statement of Arrangements is no longer required.

I don't think anybody really knows to be honest - I've had a few questions about how they will work myself and feedback from judges who have been trained on CAOs is that they don't know either!

"Residency" will now just be a line that says the child lives with x or y parent - so just the word residency is omitted but the legal benefits that came with a residence order remain the same. Pointless really...

Thanks.

STIDW, Is the D8 form changing too because that asks you to attach the statement of arrangements? We did fill in the form and the statement of arrangements a year ago, but haven't got around doing anything about it. I guess I'll need to keep an eye out and redo it if it does change. So are they just not asking on the forms what happens with the children or what?

"Residency" will now just be a line that says the child lives with x or y parent - so just the word residency is omitted but the legal benefits that came with a residence order remain the same.
That's the bit that confused me because you could have a residency order without the child being resident with you. People could have shared residency orders with the child actually living with one parent as I understood it.