What Is Included in a Parenting Plan?

A Parenting Plan is an agreement made between parents when they are separating or divorcing. A Parenting Plan has many parts to it that help determine what is going to happen to their children until they reach the age of 16. Here is what is included.

Where Do the Children Live?

A Parenting Plan records who the children will live with after their parents separate.  Through mediation, parents will decide where the children will live. 

In the event that parents cannot come to a solution to this question, our mediators will help parents decide how to agree who the children will live with or assist parents in agreeing how they will co-parent.  

Time Spent With Each Parent 

At mediation, the parents will then decide how often the children spend time with each parent. To do this, parents may consider where the other parent lives, their financial situation, and their living situation. The parents will decide how often the other parent will see their children, if that visit needs to be supervised or unsupervised, and how often their children spend overnight at the other parent’s home.  

Once the time the children will spend with each parent has been agreed upon, it is up to the parents to ensure that everything goes according to what has been agreed upon. If there is a breach in the Parenting Plan, the parents can return to mediation.  

Contact With Children

A Parenting Plan may also include what kind of contact parents can have with their children after separation.  For the parent the children live with, they will spend time with their children all the time, however, for the parent who the children do not live with on a daily basis, the parents can decide at mediation what kind of contact they will have with their children.

The parents can decide how often the other parent can send texts, make phone calls, send emails, or interact with their children via social media. 

Special Arrangements

Some Parenting Plans have special agreements built into them depending on the family’s needs. One special agreement is that the children cannot be removed from the country without written consent from the other parent. In this situation, the children may have family, through their parent, in another country. 

Another special agreement is how the children will be educated and where. The children may need to attend a specific school or the children may want to stay in a specific school. 

When Does a Parenting Plan Expire?

A Parenting Plan typically lasts until the child turns 16-years-old. After the age of 16, parents can then come to agreements with the children as to what they want. In some cases, the Parenting Plan can extend to the age of 18 in issues of living arrangements, but this is rare.

Contact Us

If you are in need of family mediation, contact Family Law Mediation today at 01164 422 989 or hello@familylawmediation.co.uk so we can help facilitate an easy and fair mediation for your Parenting Plan.