Last updated: September 2026
by Jess Knauf, Director of Client Strategy at Mediate UK. Reviewed by Belinda Atkins, Managing Director, Family Legal Ltd. Information reflects current family law and court procedure in England and Wales as of 8 September 2026.
Key Points
- A breach is any failure to do what the order actually requires, without a reasonable excuse.
- Enforcement is applied for on Form C79, sent to the court that made the original order.
- The court must be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt before it can make an enforcement order of 40 to 200 hours of unpaid work.
- It can also order compensation for financial loss, change the arrangements, or treat persistent defiance as contempt of court.
- You do not need a MIAM before a C79. You usually do need one before a new C100 to change the order.
- The enforcement fee is £270 as of July 2026, and Help with Fees may reduce or remove it.
Quick Answer
A breach of child arrangements order happens when one parent fails to do what the order requires without a reasonable excuse. You can ask the family court to step in by applying on Form C79. If the breach is proved beyond reasonable doubt, the court can order unpaid work, order compensation for money you lost, change the arrangements, or in serious cases deal with it as contempt of court.
A breach of a child arrangements order is one of the more demoralising things a separated parent can face. You went through the whole court process, you got an order setting out when your child spends time with you, and now the other parent is not sticking to it. It can feel as though the order was worth very little.
It is worth more than it feels right now. A child arrangements order is made under section 8 of the Children Act 1989 and it is legally binding, not a suggestion, and the family court has real powers to back it up. If you want a refresher on how these orders work before you read on, that guide covers the ground.
This guide explains what counts as a breach, what the court can realistically do about it, how the C79 enforcement route works, and when a new C100 is actually the better application to make.
What counts as a breach of child arrangements order?
The order itself is the test. Whatever the order says has to happen is what can be breached, so read your order closely before you do anything else. If it says handover is at 6pm on Friday at a named location, that is the obligation. If it uses looser wording such as “such contact as may be agreed”, there may be less to enforce than you think.
Common examples of a breach of a child arrangements order include:
- Refusing contact outright: the child is simply not made available on the days the order specifies.
- Repeated last minute cancellations: a pattern of weekends called off for reasons that do not stack up.
- Blocking indirect contact: video or phone calls set out in the order are not happening.
- Not returning the child on time: keeping the child beyond the period the order allows.
- Ignoring conditions attached to the order: for example, rules about who may be present or where handovers take place.
- Changing arrangements unilaterally: rewriting the schedule without agreement or a court application.
What is not a breach: reasonable excuse
Not every missed handover is a breach. The law builds in an escape valve. Under section 11J of the Children Act 1989, the court cannot make an enforcement order if it is satisfied the person had a reasonable excuse. The burden of proving that excuse sits with the parent who is relying on it, and they only have to show it on the balance of probabilities.
A child with a genuine illness and a temperature is a reasonable excuse. A car that broke down on the way to handover is likely to be one. Withholding a child because maintenance has not been paid, or because the other parent has a new partner, is not. One-off disruptions rarely persuade a court to act. A documented pattern usually does.
The warning notice: the thing most parents miss
Before the court can make an enforcement order, the child arrangements order needs a warning notice attached to it. That is the paragraph setting out the consequences of not complying. Orders made since 8 December 2008 carry one as standard, so if your order is reasonably recent you can stop worrying about this.
If your order predates that, or a warning notice was not attached for some reason, it can be added on application before enforcement can proceed. Check the back page of your order now, because it saves a wasted trip to court later.
Try to sort it out first, and keep the record
Judges take a dim view of a parent who arrives at an enforcement hearing having made no attempt to resolve things directly. Before you apply, send a short, factual, unemotional message setting out which dates were missed and asking for the order to be followed. Keep it civil, because it may end up in the court bundle.
At the same time, start keeping a proper log. Enforcement cases are won and lost on evidence, and vague recollections do not meet the standard the court applies. You will want dates and times of each missed occasion, what the order required on that date, screenshots of messages, any receipts for costs you incurred, and a note of any explanation given at the time.
“We see a lot of enforcement applications that would never have been needed if the original order had been written more tightly. Wording like ‘reasonable contact’ gives both parents room to argue about what was actually agreed. So the first question we ask a parent who comes to us after a breach is whether the order says what they think it says. That answer usually decides whether this is an enforcement problem or a drafting problem, and the two need completely different applications.”
Jess Knauf, Director of Client Strategy, Mediate UK
C79 enforcement: how the application works
If the other parent is not following the court order and talking has not worked, the formal route is the C79 application to enforce a child arrangements order. It goes to the family court that made the original order.
- Complete Form C79: set out each alleged breach separately, with the date, what the order required and what actually happened.
- Attach your evidence: a copy of the existing order, your case number, and your log of the breaches with supporting messages.
- Pay the court fee: £270 for an enforcement or compensation application, the same as a new Children Act application, as of July 2026. Check the current court fees before paying, and see whether you qualify for Help with Fees.
- The court issues the application: copies go to the other parent and to Cafcass, which carries out safeguarding checks.
- A first hearing is listed: this works much like the first hearing in a C100 case, clarifying the issues and setting directions.
- The court decides: whether the breaches are proved, whether there was a reasonable excuse, and what to do about it.
One point that surprises many parents: enforcement applications are not on the list in Practice Direction 3A that carries the MIAM requirement, so you do not have to attend a MIAM before submitting a C79. That is different from a C100.
What the family court can do about a breach
The court has a ladder of powers, and it very rarely starts at the top. The child’s welfare shapes everything, because punishing a parent in a way that ends up harming the child defeats the purpose of the exercise. In practice the options run roughly like this:
- A warning: the judge spells out what will happen if the order is broken again. This alone resolves a great many cases.
- Varying the order: making the arrangements clearer or more workable so there is less to argue about.
- Activity directions: a referral to a Separated Parents Information Programme or similar work to address what is going wrong.
- An enforcement order: between 40 and 200 hours of unpaid work, monitored by the probation service, under section 11J.
- Compensation for financial loss: under section 11O, for money genuinely lost because of the breach, such as a cancelled holiday or wasted travel.
- Contempt of court: reserved for persistent, deliberate defiance. It can mean a fine or, very rarely, a prison sentence.
Before it can impose unpaid work, the court has to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the breach happened. That is the criminal standard, and it is deliberately high because the consequences are real. It is one reason a careful, dated log matters so much more than a general sense of unfairness.
Real Example
Six missed weekends, and what the court actually did
A father had an order for alternate weekends. Over four months, six of eight weekends were cancelled, usually by text on the Friday afternoon. He kept every message and a simple spreadsheet of dates. At the enforcement hearing the mother said the handovers had become confrontational. The judge did not make an enforcement order. Instead the arrangements were varied so handovers happened at the child’s school on a Friday afternoon, removing the flashpoint entirely, with a clear warning about what would follow if weekends were missed again. Contact ran without incident afterwards. Not the outcome he expected, but the one that worked.
C79 or a new C100? Choosing the right application
This is where parents most often go wrong, and it costs them months. Your original C100 application is the foundation of the order you are now trying to enforce. Without that first application there would be no order at all. But the C100 is not the form you use to enforce it.
The short version: use a C79 for enforcement family court action when the order is clear, workable and simply being ignored. Use a fresh C100 when the order no longer fits the family’s life and needs changing rather than policing.
There is a third possibility that is easy to miss. Sometimes both are appropriate: you enforce the breaches that have already happened and, at the same time, ask the court to tighten the wording so it cannot happen again. If you are unsure which of your options fits, reading up on the different types of child arrangements orders will help you work out what you actually want the court to do.
If you need a new C100, you will need a MIAM first
A MIAM is a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting, a short one to one meeting with an accredited mediator to look at whether your dispute could be resolved without a contested hearing. For most C100 applications it is a legal requirement, and the mediator signs the relevant section of the form to confirm you attended. There are exemptions in certain circumstances, including where there is evidence of domestic abuse or a genuine urgency.
Book Your MIAM
Changing the order rather than enforcing it?
If the answer is a new C100 to vary the arrangements, a MIAM is the required first step. Our MIAM is with an FMC-accredited mediator, with your signed Section 4 back within 48 hours and an urgent 24 hour option if you need it. It is free if you qualify for legal aid, which is means-tested for family mediation.
What if you are the parent accused of a breach?
Plenty of people reach this page from the other side. If a C79 has landed on your doormat, do not ignore it. Respond, and set out clearly what happened on each of the dates alleged and why. If your child was genuinely ill, refused to go, or the arrangement had stopped working for a specific reason, say so plainly and evidence it where you can.
If the real issue is that the order no longer fits, the honest answer is to apply to vary it rather than to quietly stop complying. Courts respond far better to a parent who came back to ask for a change than to one who simply stopped following the order.
How long enforcement takes, and what it costs
Courts aim to list enforcement applications quickly, and a first hearing within a few weeks is common. A contested enforcement, though, often runs to two or three hearings across several months, particularly if a fact-finding hearing or a Cafcass report is needed. The court fee is the small part of the cost. If you instruct a solicitor to represent you across several hearings, that is where the money goes. Our guide to family court costs sets out the wider picture.
Mediate UK
Could mediation fix this faster than another hearing?
Most breaches come from a communication problem the order was never going to solve on its own. Mediation is usually quicker and considerably less expensive than a contested enforcement, and the family mediation voucher scheme offers up to £500 towards the cost where child arrangements are in dispute. It also puts you in a stronger position if you do end up back in court.
In Summary
A breach of a child arrangements order is a failure to do what the order requires without a reasonable excuse. Enforcement runs through Form C79 at the court that made the order, and the court must be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt before it can impose unpaid work. Its powers also include compensation for financial loss, varying the arrangements, and contempt proceedings for persistent defiance, all of them filtered through what is best for the child.
Before you apply, read the order carefully, check the warning notice is attached, keep a dated log of every breach and make a reasonable attempt to resolve it directly. And be honest with yourself about which application you need. If the order is clear and ignored, that is a C79. If the order no longer works, that is a new C100, and you will need a MIAM first.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can the police enforce a child arrangements order?
Generally no. Breaching a child arrangements order is not a criminal offence, so the police will usually treat it as a civil matter for the family court. The exception is where a child has been abducted or is at immediate risk of harm, in which case you should contact the police straight away.
How many breaches do I need before I can apply?
There is no set number. You can apply after a single serious breach, but in practice courts respond far better to a documented pattern than to a one-off. A log of several dated breaches, with evidence for each, gives you a much stronger application than one missed weekend.
Can I stop paying child maintenance if contact is being withheld?
No. Child maintenance and child arrangements are entirely separate in law. Stopping payments will not help your enforcement application and is likely to count against you, as well as creating a maintenance arrears problem of its own.
Can a parent go to prison for breaching a child arrangements order?
It is possible but very rare. Committal to prison for contempt of court is the last resort, used only for deliberate and repeated defiance. Courts are conscious that imprisoning a parent is rarely in the child’s interests, so unpaid work, compensation or varying the order come first.
What if my teenager refuses to go?
A parent is expected to take reasonable steps to make the arrangements happen, but courts recognise that older children have their own views and cannot simply be forced. If a child is genuinely refusing, that may amount to a reasonable excuse. The court will want to understand why, and may ask Cafcass to look into it.
Do I need a solicitor for a C79 enforcement application?
No, many parents apply themselves. Because the court applies the criminal standard of proof, the quality of your evidence matters a great deal, so it can be helpful to get advice on how to set out the alleged breaches before you file.
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