Parenting plans
A parenting plan is a written agreement between separated parents setting out how they'll raise their children across two homes. It isn't a court order and it isn't legally binding on its own, but it's the document most UK mediators, Cafcass officers and family solicitors will ask whether you have. Cafcass's version is now called Our Child's Plan.
In this cluster #
Our Child's Plan (formerly the Parenting Plan) → Cafcass renamed it. What's changed, what hasn't, and how to complete it.
What to include in a parenting plan → The fourteen sections, what each is really asking, and the one almost everyone leaves blank.
Why a plan is worth the afternoon #
Two reasons, and neither is the obvious one.
It converts disagreements from general to specific. "You're not flexible" is an argument nobody wins. "We haven't agreed what happens when one of us is ill on a handover day" is a problem with about four possible answers. A plan forces the second kind of conversation.
It survives you both forgetting. Eight months after you agree it, neither of you will remember whether the February half term was split or alternated. One of you will be sure it was split. The other will be equally sure it wasn't. Both of you will be arguing in good faith.
What a plan is not #
Not a court order. Nobody can be taken to court for breaching a parenting plan in itself. If you want something enforceable you're looking at a consent order, which usually means a solicitor.
Not a one-off. Children's needs at four aren't their needs at eleven. Put a review date in the plan itself — most families find annually is about right, plus whenever something structural changes.
Not a negotiation weapon. A plan drafted to lock the other parent down will be resisted, and a resisted plan isn't followed. The point is an arrangement you'll both still be using next year.
How OurPath uses your plan #
This is the part we built the product around. In OurPath the plan isn't a document you file — it's the configuration. The schedule becomes your shared calendar, eighteen months ahead, with your local authority's school term dates already in it. The holiday rules become holiday entries. The money split becomes the default on every cost either of you logs.
Change the plan and everything changes with it, with both parents accepting the new version and the old one kept on record.
General information about England and Wales, not legal advice.