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Good afternoon,
I am looking for some guidance.
I have a court child arrangement order in which my daughter lives with her mum and i see her every other weekend. My EX hasn't told me yet but i understand she is planning on moving 250 miles away with my daughter.
This will make seeing my daughter nearly impossible inline with the current order. If i leave to pick her up after work on Friday i wont get back to early hours on a Saturday morning. We will spend Saturday tired. Then i will have to drop her back at a reasonable time Sunday so she can get a good night sleep before school on Monday. I wont get back until late meaning i will be tired for work Monday.
I know for a fact it will be me driving 1000 miles in a weekend to be able to see my daughter at home with my family as i have to do the pickups and drop offs now. This is only 20 mins down the road.
What options do i have to cope with this?
This will be devastating to me, my family and extended family!
I look forward to some help on this
Thanks
Hi,
There is an option you can try but it would involve returning to court. You could apply for a PSO (Prohibited Steps Order). More info:
A Prohibited Steps Order is an order which prohibits a party (usually a parent) from a certain activity relating to a child(ren), and which also prohibits a party from exercising their parental responsibility.
When can you apply for a Prohibited Steps Order?
You can apply under S8 of the Children Act 1989. This type of order usually prohibits the activity of one single issue and restricts that activity from being carried out.
For example, this could be preventing one parent from removing the child from school, changing a child’s name/surname or removing the child from the country.
If you are separated or going through separation and find yourself in a situation where your former partner is making threats to carry out an activity, such as the examples above, then you may apply to the Court for a Prohibited Steps Order to prevent them from doing so.
It should be noted that when the Court considers an application for a Prohibited Steps Order, the child’s welfare will be the Court’s paramount consideration, as is the case when applying for any orders relating to children.
When can you not apply for a Prohibited Steps Order
- If the child is the age of 16 years old or beyond
- If the child is in the care of a Local Authority
Making the application for an Order
To apply for an Order, the person applying will need to file a C100 application form. In doing so, you must show that you have attempted or attended mediation (mediation will be exempt in cases where there has been domestic violence).
Once the application has been issued, the Court will list the matter for a first dispute resolution hearing appointment.
Emergency Prohibited Steps Order
The order can also be applied for on an emergency basis. However, in order for an urgent application to be successful, there must be strong evidence or an imminent threat. In these circumstances, the application is made ‘without notice’. This means that the respondent would not be aware that the order is being made and nor would they be present at the hearing. If an order is granted on this basis, the Court will list a further ‘return’ hearing when the respondent will be required to attend once they have been served with the application and emergency order made.
when my ex left with the kids and re-schooled them without my knowledge i applied for a emergency PSO and it was granted. she would have had to stay in the area where my kids currently went to school. To counteract this she made a bunch of allegations against me, the PSO was then dismissed and i ended up in a contact centre and then in a fact finding trial accused of all sorts. I had to go through the motions but in the end i moved closer to where they are now, and got 60/40 access and shared residency.
To be honest your best bet is applying for the PSO, but make sure you got some clear evidence this could happen. hopefully she then cant move, and you should try and see if you can get a bit more access and possibly even shared residency. With shared residency it is deemed the children have 2 homes, one at yr ex and one home with you also. That way she cant move in future with the children without yr permission.
Shes probably trying to move to furstrate yr contact.
Thanks for the information, I think this is probably the only way.
I did try for shared care and also had a parenting plan in place which was signed. This only lasted about 2 weeks then it was thrown out by my daughters mum.
Its a real struggle and has been for years.
I just have to keep trying my best.
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