Children and Divorce - 2

RESIDENCE ORDERS
These are the equivalent of the old orders for care and control, often referred to as custody orders. The new name is again self explanatory. It states who the child will live with and who has day-to-day care and control of the child. It is usually made in favour of one parent but can be granted to another family member or more than one person. If granted to more than one person this would be a Joint Residence Order. In this case it is likely that both parents/and or guardian are able to co-operate over the child's upbringing. A Residence Order automatically grants that person Parental Responsibility, if they did not already have this.

CONTACT ORDERS
These are the equivalent of access orders. They allow the non-residential parent to see the child. In fact contact is the right of the child and not of the parent but because, in cases of difficulty, it is the parent who applies for it, the formality is often overlooked (except by the courts)

Contact can take many forms:
Staying contact involves the child staying with the non-residential parent for short breaks at weekends or even longer periods of holiday.

Visiting contact involves seeing the child for the day either at home or on a trip out
Indirect contact is sometimes required if there are concerns over whether it is safe or appropriate for the child to be alone with the parent. It may also be appropriate where there has been a long period of separation and the child has grown apart from the non-residential parent.

Supervised contact, indirect contact or limited visiting contact may be helpful to allow the relationship to recover and, after a period of time, may lead to something a little more extensive, and hopefully unsupervised contact.