Parenting Plan Without Mediation

A Parenting Plan is a written agreement voluntarily entered into, signed and dated by both parents, that sets out the care arrangements for the child or children, it can be as detailed or as simple as you prefer. Parenting plans are a great way to formally document your parenting arrangements, to avoid possible confusion and mis-interpretation which may occur with verbal arrangements. Parenting Plans are a great way to document the arrangements that both parent's believe to be in the child/ren's best interests at the relevant time. 

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This option includes each person's intake conference and risk assessment in addition to a 30-50 minute telephone conference between the mediator and both parties where the mediator may ask clarifying questions to assist with the preparation of the Parenting Plan. 

 

We ask that you provide us with the details of your parenting arrangements and we will prepare your Parenting Plan to reflect your agreement.

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We strongly suggest that both parents (or carers if relevant) seek legal advice prior to signing and dating the Parenting Plan, once the Parenting Plan has been signed and dated by BOTH parents it can be used as evidence in Court proceedings and may impact the outcome of future Court proceedings. If someone breaches the Parenting Plan the Court is likely to be interested in the reason for the breach and whether there was a reasonable excuse for the breach. Unreasonable breaches of a Parenting Plan may impact the outcome of future Court proceedings. 

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We can prepare the Parenting Plan as an interim (temporary) arrangement (e.g. for 6, 12 or 24 months - or a time limit of your choosing), or we can prepare a Parenting Plan on a final basis. We can edit the Parenting Plan to change the arrangements when the children get older or when they hit particular milestones - we can be creative with the content of the Parenting Plan. Different parenting arrangements may be more suitable for children of different ages (e.g. it may be appropriate to start with a parenting arrangement for young children which changes as they age), a lawyer will be able to advise you in relation to age appropriate parenting arrangements, we will not and cannot provide legal advice.  A Parenting Plan is not legally enforceable (Consent Orders are legally enforceable and are different to a Parenting Plan) but Parenting Plans are extremely important documents as they will be considered as evidence in Court in future if Court proceedings are commenced. 

 

Common Parenting Plan arrangements include:

• Equal time: 2:2:3 "time with each parent" arrangement:  with parental responsibility options, time on special occasions clauses, school holiday clauses, passport and overseas travel clauses; or

• Children to live with one parent (the primary carer) and spend time with the other parent: with parental responsibility options, time on special occasions clauses, school holidays clauses, passport and overseas travel clauses; or

• Equal time: Rotating 7 consecutive nights with each parent arrangement: parental responsibility options, time on special occasions clauses, school holiday clauses, passport and overseas travel clauses.
   

​Different parenting arrangements will suit different families, depending on the unique circumstances of each family. In Australia there is no automatic right or presumption for "50/50" care of children. 
 

Please send us an email: hello@nextstepmediation.com.au or a text message: 0449 025 489 if you would like to proceed.

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If there is a history of family violence or  there are risk issues (eg drug and or alcohol misuse, exposure to violence and or negligent parenting) we strongly suggest that both parents or parties seek legal advice before entering into any Parenting Arrangement and before signing and dating any Parenting Plan. We may refuse to assist if risk issues exist and the proposal does not mitigate the identified risks. The Agreement you enter and the content of the Parenting Plan can impact the outcome of future Court proceedings.