Children & Parenting
3. Parenting Plans
Authors: Staff Legal Eagle
Firm / Chambers:
Last updated: 30 Jun 2015
- A parenting plan is an agreement between two parents about the arrangements for the care of their children. It is a written document that is signed and dated to reflect the agreement reached between the parties.
- If you and your ex-partner decide you want to write down and formalise your agreement about the parenting arrangements for your children then a parenting plan is a good way to do this.
- There is no need to go to court as you and your ex-partner can jointly make decisions and come to an agreement about the parenting arrangements for your children.
- A parenting plan can include all matters that are relevant to the care, well-being and development of your children.
- You will usually include arrangements about:
- who your children live with;
- who they will spend time with and when these visits will take place. This should include contact with the children’s other parent and also members of the children’s extended family;
- holidays and special days such as birthdays, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day and Christmas;
- overseas travel of one parent with the children and arrangements for keeping in contact during those times; and
- any special arrangements that need to be put in place for the contact such as supervision or arrangements for neutral hand-over venues or services.
- Children all have different needs. If you have more than one child it may be best to consider whether different arrangements need to be made for each of them to ensure their individual needs are being met. Some people include these differences in one parenting plan. Others find it is necessary to draft separate parenting plans for each child.
- When making decisions and making arrangements for children parents should focus on the best interests of the children rather than what the parents may or may not need or want to happen. The focus needs to be on children’s rights and parents’ responsibilities.
- This can sometimes be difficult as separation can be an extremely stressful time for all involved. In these situations it can be really helpful to get some input from an independent third party such as a child psychologist or counsellor to ensure that your children’s needs are being put first and will be met by what you decide. If you and your ex-partner think this may assist you can arrange to do this privately without the need to go to court.
- Parenting plans are not enforceable by the court. However if your parenting plan breaks down and you end up in court then the contents of your parenting plan will be taken into account.
- The lack of enforceability means that if one parent does not stick to what is agreed to in the parenting plan then the court does not have the power to make them stick to the agreement. If you want the court to have this power then you should find out more about consent parenting orders (often referred to as consent orders). It is a good idea to discuss this difference in more detail with your lawyer.
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