Who pays for childcare in this situation?

[TeaAndCake]

I'm asking this on behalf of a friend.
My friend (I'll call her Linda here) divorced her H (I'll call XH Mike here) last summer. They have 3 DC aged 14, 11 and 9.
They had an unofficial arrangement that the DC would live with Linda and go to Mike's every other weekend (Friday evening to Sunday afternoon) and every Tuesday evening overnight.

Mike took Linda to court last month to put a legal arrangement in place and also have the DC overnight every other Thursday night.

Linda has never blocked the DC from seeing their dad but they can only just cope with amount of time they spend with him as he is a functioning alcoholic (who does hold down a job) but are utterly fed up with his mood swings and ranting. The 14 year old refuses to stay overnight but the others do.

Before the court date CAFCASS spoke to both parents and Mike blatantly stated that he wanted more overnight access in order to reduce CMS payments to Linda. Court still granted the extra access to him.

The older 2 DC are at high school and make their own way on the school bus but DC3 goes to breakfast club at school so that Linda can go to work (she has an early start and finishes most days in time for school pick up but is able to do the odd later finish and earn a little extra so DC 3 also stays in after school club whilst the others go to grandparents from the school bus, Linda collects them from there).

Mike refuses to pay for any school club childcare as he thinks his parental responsibility starts at 5pm when he collects the DC after his shift ends and 7am the following morning when he drops then either at home or DC3 to breakfast club on his way to work (which he thinks Linda has to pay for in order for her to get to work on time).

The actual court order hasn't yet been sent to either parent. Linda has been chasing it but was told 'It usually takes longer than this anyway and it can't be emailed as the computers are down'. The court date was 18 December.

I have advised Linda to have school club invoice her only for the sessions when DC3 is with her and invoice Mike for sessions on his days. Linda thinks he will refuse to pay anyway and leave her with the bill.
Could this backfire on her?

I'm not sure it will do her any good to dig in on this issue. It's usually lose lose.

I'd follow your advice. Mike's a cock.

What do they do on Tuesdays? I would assume that whoever pays for after school on Tuesday and breakfast club on Wednesday should do the same for the Thursday evening / Friday morning sessions. If either parent was unhappy with the Tues/Weds arrangement that should have been brought up at the court hearing.

Does the court order not state the times between which Mike has parental responsibility? It probably should if Mike is going to be difficult. If his parental responsibility is indeed between 5pm-7am then he is correct not to pay for school clubs outside of his hours.

Court had little interest in the minutiae of arrangements and told them both to 'sort out your communication'.

There is a long history of poor communication. Linda refuses to be engage in text conversations which are seriously abusive and usually sent in the evening when Mike is very drunk. She just blanks him. She has reported this to the police who took it very seriously and logged the complaint under malicious communications. It made no difference in court though.

It seems unfair to me that Linda pays all childcare costs and picks up the majority of child-rearing cost (Mike pays the minimum CMS payment, late every month) when he gets to work and earn a full time wage. He thinks the maintenance he pays to should cover these costs even when he is using the services on his contact time.

Linda is working to subsidise his costs.

"If his parental responsibility is indeed between 5pm-7am then he is correct not to pay for school clubs outside of his hours."

The use of the word "correct" here is astounding

I agree with expat

But his maintenance would’ve been reduced due to the extra day so is therefore not covered. The reduction is because he is supposed to cover the children’s costs on the nights he has them stay over.

Thanks for the replies.

Linda has not yet read a copy of the order (neither has Mike).

During the court proceedings specific times were not discussed. Linda was pretty blindsided. She had spoken to CAFCASS at length about her concerns over the DCs welfare when they are with Mike (neglect, abusive language and drunkenness) which all came to nothing since Mike was granted more access anyway.

Is Mike going to have them at 5pm until 7am in the school holidays? I would be looking at what the "norm" is in the holidays and state those times as being his to arrange childcare for.

Mike takes some annual leave in the school holidays but the rest is left to Linda to organise.
Her parents help her as much as they can but they're getting on a little and have had few health issues lately so she doesn't like to ask too much of them.

I would cancel the Thursday morning slot if I were her. Then he would have to book and pay for it - it would be his contract.