Enforcing a child arrangements order

A child arrangements order made by the Family Court in England and Wales is enforced by applying to the same court on Form C79. The court must first establish whether the order has in fact been breached and why; if it is satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that a person has failed to comply without reasonable excuse, it may make an enforcement order requiring between 40 and 200 hours of unpaid work under section 11J of the Children Act 1989, order compensation for financial loss under section 11O, vary the original order, refer the parents to a parenting programme or, in the most serious cases, impose a fine or commit the defaulter to prison for contempt.[1][2][3][4] Every child arrangements order made since 8 December 2008 carries a warning notice explaining these consequences.[5]

Enforcement is not automatic. Practice Direction 12B requires the court to consider “the reasons for any non-compliance”, how the child’s wishes and feelings are to be ascertained, whether Cafcass advice is needed and whether the order itself should be changed, and an enforcement order may be made only where it is “necessary to secure the person’s compliance” and “proportionate to the seriousness of the breach”.[4][6] The Court of Appeal in Re L-W [2010] EWCA Civ 1253 held that a parent who was ordered to “allow” or “make available” contact is not in breach merely because a child refuses to go.[7] The application fee is £270 under the July 2026 edition of HMCTS fee list EX50.[8]

Written by Jess Knauf, Director of Client Strategy at Mediate UK and Associate Member of Resolution. Reviewed by Belinda Atkins, Managing Director of Mediate UK. Last reviewed 6 September 2026; last updated 6 September 2026; next scheduled review March 2027.

Definition and purpose

A child arrangements order regulates with whom a child lives, spends time or otherwise has contact, and when. It binds the persons named in it, but, like every court order, it depends for its effect on compliance. “Enforcement” describes the steps the court can take when a person subject to the order does not do what it requires: most commonly a parent with whom the child lives who does not make the child available for time with the other parent, but also a parent who fails to return a child, who does not attend handovers, or who does not comply with a condition attached to the order.[4]

The purpose of the enforcement regime, introduced by the Children and Adoption Act 2006 and in force since 8 December 2008, is to give the court measures short of imprisonment. Before 2008 the only sanctions for breach of a contact order were a fine or committal for contempt, both of which courts were reluctant to use against the parent caring for the child.[1][5] The 2006 Act added activity directions and conditions, monitoring by Cafcass, warning notices, enforcement orders imposing unpaid work, and compensation for financial loss, so that the court has, in the words of Practice Direction 12B, “a wide range of powers in the event of a breach of a child arrangements order without reasonable excuse”.[9][10][3][4]

Enforcement should be distinguished from variation. Where the order is not working because circumstances have changed or the arrangements are unrealistic, the appropriate application is to vary it on Form C100, and the court hearing an enforcement application will itself consider whether variation is the better course.[4][11]

Statutory framework for enforcing a child arrangements order
ProvisionSubjectEffect
s.11A to 11GActivity directions and conditionsPower to require a party to take part in programmes, classes, counselling or information sessions designed to help establish, maintain or improve involvement in the child’s life; cannot require medical treatment or mediation itself[9]
s.11HMonitoringCourt may ask a Cafcass officer to monitor compliance and report, for up to twelve months[10]
s.11IWarning noticesEvery child arrangements order (or variation) must carry a notice warning of the consequences of non-compliance[5]
s.11J and Sch. A1Enforcement ordersUnpaid work requirement of 40 to 200 hours where breach without reasonable excuse is proved beyond reasonable doubt; may be suspended[1][2]
s.11KPreconditionsNo enforcement order unless the person had been given or informed of the warning notice; none for a failure before the person was 18; person must be habitually resident in England and Wales[12]
s.11LMaking the orderOrder must be necessary and proportionate; court must consider the likely effect on the person and the welfare of the child[6]
s.11M and 11NMonitoring and breach of enforcement ordersThe court must ask a Cafcass officer to monitor compliance with the unpaid work requirement and report; on breach of the enforcement order the court may make it more onerous or make a second order[13][2]
s.11O and 11PCompensationOrder to pay compensation for financial loss caused by the breach, not exceeding the loss, recoverable as a civil debt[3]
PD12B para 21ProcedureListing within 20 working days, safeguarding checks, fact-finding, the menu of options[4]
FPR Part 37ContemptProcedure for committal, including the requirement of a penal notice and personal service[14]

The enforcement provisions were inserted into the Children Act 1989 by sections 1 to 5 of the Children and Adoption Act 2006 and commenced on 8 December 2008; their headings were amended in April 2014 when the Children and Families Act 2014 replaced contact and residence orders with the single child arrangements order.[5][1] Procedure is in Part 12 of the Family Procedure Rules 2010 and paragraph 21 of Practice Direction 12B, and applications for committal are governed by Part 37.[4][14]

Warning notices

Section 11I provides that where the court makes or varies a child arrangements order “it is to attach to the child arrangements order … a notice warning of the consequences of failing to comply”.[5] The notice is the gateway to the statutory sanctions: under section 11K an enforcement order may not be made unless the person “had been given (in accordance with rules of court) a copy of, or otherwise informed of the terms of” the warning notice before the failure relied on.[12] Orders made before 8 December 2008 do not carry a notice, and GOV.UK explains that a person seeking to enforce such an order first applies on Form C78 to have a warning notice attached; HMCTS guidance CB5 confirms that “the court cannot refuse an application to add a warning notice to an existing child arrangements order”.[11][15]

Who can apply and how

Under section 11J(5) an enforcement order may be applied for by the person with whom the child lives or is to live, a person whose time with the child is provided for in the order, any individual subject to a condition under section 11(7)(b) or an activity condition, or the child, who needs the court’s permission and sufficient understanding.[1] Section 11O(6) gives the same list for compensation.[3] An application is made on Form C79, “Apply to the court to enforce a child arrangements order”, last revised on 1 June 2026, which is also used “to set aside or change an existing enforcement order”, and is filed at the court that made the order.[16] Practice Direction 12B directs that the application is listed “before the previously allocated judge if possible”.[4]

The applicant sets out on the form each alleged breach with dates and what happened, and states which outcome is sought: an enforcement order, compensation, a variation of the order, or a combination.[16] Where an application is issued more than three months after the order in question, paragraph 21.4 requires safeguarding checks to be ordered from Cafcass, and the gatekeepers may direct further checks in any case.[4] There is no MIAM requirement for an enforcement application, but GOV.UK notes that a person “can usually avoid this if you get support outside of court, such as using a mediator”, and mediation of arrangements that have broken down is described on child arrangements mediation.[11]

The court’s approach

Paragraph 21.1 of Practice Direction 12B sets out what the court must do on an enforcement application. It must “consider whether the facts relevant to the alleged non-compliance are agreed, or whether it is necessary to conduct a hearing to establish the facts”; “consider the reasons for any non-compliance”; “consider how the wishes and feelings of the child are to be ascertained”; “consider whether advice is required from Cafcass/CAFCASS Cymru on the appropriate way forward”; assess risk; consider whether a referral to non-court dispute resolution is appropriate; consider whether an enforcement order is appropriate; and apply the welfare checklist.[4] Where the facts are disputed and an enforcement or compensation order is in prospect, paragraph 21.7 requires the court to “determine the facts in order to establish the cause of the alleged failure to comply”.[4]

The standard of proof for an enforcement order is the criminal standard: the court must be “satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that a person has failed to comply with a provision” of the order.[1] The person alleged to be in breach may then show, on the balance of probabilities, that they “had a reasonable excuse for failing to comply”, in which case no enforcement order may be made.[1] A child’s refusal, illness, a genuine misunderstanding of the order’s terms, or a safeguarding concern reported promptly may amount to a reasonable excuse depending on the facts; the court decides in each case.

Re L-W

The leading authority is Re L-W (Children) [2010] EWCA Civ 1253, in which the Court of Appeal set aside a series of enforcement orders and a suspended committal made against a father with whom a ten-year-old boy lived, after the boy refused to go to contact with his mother.[7] Munby LJ held that the orders required the father to “allow” contact and to “make M available”; “to ‘allow’ is to concede or to permit; to ‘make available’ is to put at one’s disposal or within one’s reach. That was the father’s obligation; no more and no less.”[7] The judge below had wrongly treated the father as obliged to make sure contact happened. The court also distinguished impossibility, which goes to whether there was a breach at all, from reasonable excuse, which is a defence once breach is proved, and confirmed that the applicant must prove both the breach and that compliance was within the respondent’s power.[7] The practical consequence is that courts now draft child arrangements orders with more specific obligations, and enforcement applications turn on the precise wording of the order.

The court’s powers

Paragraph 21.6 of Practice Direction 12B lists the options open to the court once non-compliance without reasonable excuse is established: “(a) referral of the parents to a SPIP, or in Wales a WT4C, or mediation; (b) variation of the child arrangements order (which could include a more defined order and/or reconsidering the contact provision or the living arrangements of the child); (c) a contact enforcement order or suspended enforcement order under section 11J Children Act 1989; (d) an order for compensation for financial loss (under section 11O Children Act 1989); (e) committal to prison or (f) a fine”.[4] Cafcass states that Planning Together for Children “replaces the Separated Parents Information Programme (SPIP)”; the course is described below.[17]

Enforcement orders

An enforcement order imposes an unpaid work requirement. Schedule A1 provides that the hours “must, in aggregate, be (i) not less than 40, and (ii) not more than 200”, supervised by a responsible officer employed by a probation services provider.[2] Section 11L requires the court to be satisfied that the order is “necessary to secure the person’s compliance” and that its effect is “proportionate to the seriousness of the breach”; that unpaid work is available in the local justice area; and that it has obtained and considered “information about the person and the likely effect of the enforcement order on him”, including any conflict with religious beliefs or with the times at which the person works or studies. Section 11L(7) requires the court to “take into account the welfare of the child”.[6] The order may be suspended on terms, and if the person breaches the enforcement order itself the court may add hours or make a second order.[4][2][15] HMCTS guidance CB5 confirms that the work “will be monitored by the probation service”.[15]

Compensation for financial loss

Under section 11O, where a person has failed to comply without reasonable excuse and another person named in the order has suffered financial loss as a result, for example a wasted holiday or travel, the court may order the defaulter to pay compensation. The amount “may not exceed the amount of the applicant’s financial loss”, the court must consider “the individual’s financial circumstances” and the welfare of the child, and the sum is “recoverable by the applicant as a civil debt”.[3]

Activity directions and Planning Together for Children

When considering an enforcement application the court may make an activity direction under section 11A requiring a party to take part in “programmes, classes and counselling or guidance sessions” that may assist involvement in the child’s life, or in “sessions in which information or advice is given” about arrangements; it cannot require mediation itself or medical treatment.[9] The programme most often directed is Planning Together for Children, delivered by Cafcass on behalf of the Ministry of Justice, which combines up to two hours of online learning, a group workshop of about two and a half hours and an online parenting plan, and is free to the parents.[18]

Committal as a last resort

Breach of a child arrangements order is a contempt of court, and the family court has the same powers to punish contempt as the High Court, so that a person may be committed to prison for up to two years or fined.[19][20] An application for committal is made under Part 37 of the Family Procedure Rules, which requires the application to state “the date and terms of any order allegedly breached or disobeyed”, to confirm that the order “was personally served” and that it “included a penal notice”, and to inform the respondent of the right to legal representation and to remain silent; the hearing is “listed and heard in public unless the court otherwise directs” and judgment is given in public.[14]

Committal is listed last among the options in Practice Direction 12B and is treated by the courts as the remedy of final resort in children cases, because imprisoning the parent with whom a child lives ordinarily harms the child. In Re L-W the Court of Appeal set aside a suspended committal alongside the enforcement orders on the same reasoning that the father had not been shown to be in breach.[7][4] In practice committal is reserved for repeated, deliberate defiance where the lesser measures have failed.

Variation instead of enforcement

Practice Direction 12B places variation second in its list of responses, and GOV.UK tells applicants that the court may decline to enforce if “it’s better for your children to do something different”.[4][11] An order that has broken down because a child of secondary school age refuses to go, because a parent has moved, or because the times no longer fit school and work may be better replaced by a more specific or more realistic order than enforced. The court may vary on the enforcement application or direct a section 7 report first; the welfare checklist in section 1(3) of the Children Act 1989 applies to any variation.[4] Where both parents agree a new arrangement they can ask the court to approve it as a consent order.[11] A written parenting plan is often attached.

Cafcass involvement

Cafcass is involved at several points. Safeguarding checks are ordered on any enforcement application issued more than three months after the order and may be directed in any other case.[4] The court may ask a Cafcass officer to advise on the reasons for non-compliance, to ascertain the child’s wishes and feelings or to prepare a section 7 report.[4] Under section 11H the court may ask an officer to monitor compliance with the order for up to twelve months and report any failure.[10] Practice Direction 12B describes it as “good practice to ask Cafcass/CAFCASS Cymru to report on the suitability” of an unpaid work requirement before one is imposed, and section 11M requires the court, once an enforcement order is made, to ask a Cafcass officer to “monitor, or arrange for the monitoring of, the person’s compliance with the unpaid work requirement” and to report any failure.[4][13] Cafcass also delivers Planning Together for Children on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.[18]

Fee and timescale

The fee for an enforcement application on Form C79 is £270, under fee 2.1 of the Family Proceedings Fees Order as listed in the July 2026 edition of EX50, which covers “an application for an enforcement order”; an application to revoke, amend or extend an existing enforcement order, or following breach of one, is £119 under fee 2.1(t).[8] GOV.UK states: “It costs £270.”[11] Help with Fees is available on form EX160 for people on low incomes or certain benefits.[21] Practice Direction 12B requires the gatekeepers to list the application “within 20 working days of issue”.[4] Fees across the court are kept on family court fees.

Statistics

The Ministry of Justice does not publish figures for enforcement applications or enforcement orders in its quarterly Family Court Statistics bulletin, which reports private law cases and orders in aggregate: 15,534 private law cases were started and 27,663 private law orders made in January to March 2026, with an average of 35 weeks from application to disposal.[22] In answer to a parliamentary question in November 2025 the Ministry of Justice said it had “not made a recent assessment of the effectiveness of child arrangements orders or of the approach to cases where a parent breaches a court order”.[23] Enforcement applications are recorded in the court’s case management system as applications within existing proceedings, and no official series isolates them.

History

Development of enforcement of children orders in England and Wales
DateDevelopment
14 October 1991The Children Act 1989 came into force; breach of a contact or residence order could be punished only as a contempt[1]
8 December 2008Sections 11A to 11P and Schedule A1, inserted by the Children and Adoption Act 2006, commenced: activity directions, monitoring, warning notices, enforcement orders and compensation[5][1]
4 November 2010Re L-W: the Court of Appeal confined breach to what the order actually required and set aside enforcement and committal orders[7]
22 April 2014Contact and residence orders became child arrangements orders; the Child Arrangements Programme (PD12B) with its enforcement paragraph came into effect[5][4]
November 2014HMCTS guidance CB5 on enforcement applications published in its current form[15]
13 July 2026The C79 fee rose to £270[8]

See also

References

  1. Children Act 1989, section 11J: Enforcement orders. legislation.gov.uk. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  2. Children Act 1989, Schedule A1: Enforcement orders. legislation.gov.uk. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  3. Children Act 1989, section 11O: Compensation for financial loss. legislation.gov.uk. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  4. Practice Direction 12B: Child Arrangements Programme (paragraph 21, Enforcement of Child Arrangements). Ministry of Justice. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  5. Children Act 1989, section 11I: Child arrangements orders: warning notices. legislation.gov.uk. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  6. Children Act 1989, section 11L: Enforcement orders: making. legislation.gov.uk. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  7. Re L-W (Children) [2010] EWCA Civ 1253. Find Case Law, The National Archives. 4 November 2010. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  8. Family court fees (EX50). HM Courts and Tribunals Service. updated 13 July 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  9. Children Act 1989, section 11A: Activity directions. legislation.gov.uk. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  10. Children Act 1989, section 11H: Monitoring child arrangements orders. legislation.gov.uk. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  11. Making child arrangements if you divorce or separate: change or enforce an order. GOV.UK. updated 26 November 2024. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  12. Children Act 1989, section 11K: Enforcement orders: further provision. legislation.gov.uk. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  13. Children Act 1989, section 11M: Enforcement orders: monitoring. legislation.gov.uk. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  14. Family Procedure Rules 2010, Part 37: Applications and proceedings in relation to contempt of court. legislation.gov.uk. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  15. Applications related to enforcement of a child arrangements order (CB5). HM Courts and Tribunals Service. November 2014. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  16. Form C79: Apply to the court to enforce a child arrangements order. HM Courts and Tribunals Service. updated 1 June 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  17. Cafcass launches Planning Together for Children on behalf of the Ministry of Justice. Cafcass. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  18. Help in Planning Together for Children. Cafcass. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  19. Matrimonial and Family Proceedings Act 1984, section 31E: Family court has High Court and county court powers. legislation.gov.uk. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  20. Contempt of Court Act 1981, section 14: Proceedings in England and Wales. legislation.gov.uk. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  21. Get help paying court and tribunal fees. GOV.UK. updated 2 September 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  22. Family Court Statistics Quarterly, January to March 2026. Ministry of Justice. 25 June 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  23. Child Arrangements Orders: written question 87080 and answer. UK Parliament. answered November 2025. Accessed 5 September 2026.
  24. Costs and payments. Mediate UK (Family Legal Ltd). Prices as displayed on 5 September 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.

This article is part of Family Court Wiki, published by Family Legal Ltd. It is general information about the law of England and Wales, not legal advice. Last reviewed 6 September 2026. About this site and editorial policy · Report an error.