Child Arrangements Orders and Covid-19

25th March 2020

The Stay at Home Rules issued by the movement on the 23rd of March 2020 have made the general position clear: it is no longer permitted for a person to be outside their home for any purpose other than essential shopping, daily exercise, medical need or attending essential work.

So what does this mean for Contact Arrangement Orders and agreements?

Government guidance issued alongside the Stay at Home Rules on 23rd March deals specifically with child contact arrangements. States “Where parents do not live in the same household, children under 18 can be moved between their parents’ homes.” This establishes an exception to the mandatory ‘stay at home’ requirement; it does not, however, mean that children must be moved between homes. The decision whether a child is to move between parental homes is for the child’s parents to make after a sensible assessment of the circumstances, including the child’s present health, the risk of infection and the presence of any recognised vulnerable individuals in one household or the other.