Enforcing a Child Arrangements Order: Form C79
— A practical guide to enforcing a Child Arrangements Order using Form C79. Learn how to identify the exact provision allegedly breached, organise evidence by incident, understand reasonable excuse, deal with child refusal and safeguarding concerns, and understand the range of orders the Family Court can make.
Enforcing a Child Arrangements Order: understand what Form C79 actually asks the court to decide
When a child arrangements order is not being followed, enforcement is not simply a question of telling the court that “contact did not happen”.
The court needs to identify what the order actually required, what happened on the alleged breach, why it happened, whether there was a reasonable excuse and what response now best addresses compliance and the child's welfare.
Is enforcement actually the problem you need the court to solve?
C79 is the prescribed form for an application related to enforcement of a child arrangements order. But not every problem with an existing order is an enforcement problem.
The order was not followed
If you say that another person failed to comply with a provision of an existing child arrangements order, Form C79 is the usual enforcement application.
The order no longer works
If the primary problem is that circumstances have changed and different arrangements are now needed, the issue may be variation or discharge rather than punishment for breach.
C100 guidance →An immediate protective decision is needed
Where the problem involves immediate safety, removal or another urgent issue, an urgent application or additional order may be required rather than waiting for ordinary enforcement.
Urgent applications →An enforcement application is not confined to punishment. The Family Court can consider whether the existing child arrangements order should be varied, made more specific or reconsidered in light of what the evidence shows.
If you have only recently left court and are unsure exactly what the sealed order requires, start with the JSH Law after-hearing guide before drafting allegations of breach.
Answer four questions about every alleged breach
Broad statements such as “she never follows the order” or “he keeps stopping contact” are difficult to determine. Enforcement becomes clearer when each incident is analysed against the order itself.
What did the order require?
Identify the exact paragraph or provision. Do not replace the court's wording with what you think the order was intended to achieve.
What happened?
Give the relevant date, time and event. State what did and did not occur without inflating one incident into a general character assessment.
What evidence proves it?
Identify the messages, handover record, admission, travel evidence, witness or other material that directly bears on the alleged non-compliance.
What explanation was given?
Record the reason given for what happened. That explanation may be disputed, but it is part of the issue the court may need to determine.
What Form C79 is trying to establish
The current HMCTS C79 is the prescribed application related to enforcement of a child arrangements order. The form can also be used for certain applications concerning an existing enforcement order. Always download the current version from GOV.UK rather than reusing an old saved copy.
Identify the order being enforced
The court needs to know which child arrangements order, and which provision of it, forms the basis of the application.
Use the correct case information
Use the names and case details from the existing proceedings. Follow the current form's instructions concerning confidential addresses and contact details.
Set out the alleged breaches clearly
Use dates and specific events. The question is what the order required and how you say the person failed to comply with that requirement.
Explain what you want the court to consider
Think beyond “punish the other parent”. Consider what outcome would address the breach, future compliance and the child's arrangements.
Keep the application focused
The form starts the enforcement process. It does not require you to attach every message, photograph and document generated throughout the history of the case.
Case number: [reference]
Child arrangements order dated: [date]
“[Insert / identify the relevant operative wording accurately.]”
What should have happened: [brief explanation]
What happened instead: [brief factual account]
What should have happened: [brief explanation]
What happened instead: [brief factual account]
HMCTS amended the form, including directions concerning confidential details. If you have an older downloaded C79, obtain the current form before filing.
Build an incident map — not a generalised complaint
For repeated alleged breaches, map each event separately. This helps identify which incidents can actually be proved and prevents different issues becoming blurred together.
“Breach” and “reasonable excuse” are not the same question
For a statutory enforcement order imposing unpaid work, section 11J of the Children Act 1989 separates the question of non-compliance from the question of reasonable excuse. That distinction matters when preparing both an application and a response.
Was a provision of the order not complied with?
For a section 11J enforcement order, the court must be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that there was a failure to comply with a provision of the child arrangements order.
What exactly did the provision require?
The language of the order is critical. The court must determine the obligation actually imposed, rather than substituting a broader expectation about what a parent should have achieved.
Was there a reasonable excuse?
The person relying on reasonable excuse bears the burden of proving that excuse on the balance of probabilities.
What does “reasonable excuse” mean?
There is no universal checklist that automatically converts a reason into a reasonable excuse. The court considers the actual circumstances and evidence.
The timing matters
What was known before the alleged breach? When did the problem arise? Was the other person told promptly?
The evidence matters
Illness, safety concerns or another explanation may require evidence rather than a retrospective assertion made only after enforcement proceedings begin.
The response matters
What reasonable steps were taken to address the difficulty, communicate about it or seek a lawful change to the arrangements?
If an order genuinely needs to change, variation may be required. Where an immediate safeguarding issue arises, the appropriate response may include protecting the child and seeking urgent court directions rather than simply allowing the position to remain unresolved.
What if the explanation is: “the child refused to go”?
A child's refusal does not automatically prove a breach — but nor does the phrase “the child refused” automatically establish a reasonable excuse.
Start with the wording of the order
What was the adult actually required to do? An order requiring a child to be “made available” may raise different factual questions from an order containing more specific positive obligations.
The enforcement court must identify the obligation that was actually imposed and examine whether it was complied with.
Then examine the child's situation
The court can consider the child's wishes and feelings, age and understanding, the history of the arrangements, the reasons for the child's position, the conduct of the adults and whether further Cafcass or Cafcass Cymru advice is required.
The question is not resolved simply by treating the child as either irrelevant or solely responsible for the failure.
If domestic abuse, harm or another safeguarding issue is relevant to why the order was not followed, identify the issue precisely and provide the evidence available. The court must consider the reasons for non-compliance, risk and the child's welfare when deciding what should happen next.
A genuine safeguarding issue may require further investigation, Cafcass advice, variation of arrangements, a fact-finding decision or another protective direction. It should not be obscured by treating the case as a simple dispute about punishment.
What does the court consider on an enforcement application?
Are the relevant facts agreed or do they need to be determined?
If the parties disagree about whether the alleged non-compliance occurred, the court may need to hear evidence and make findings before deciding what response is available.
Why did the order not operate as intended?
The court considers the reasons for any non-compliance rather than treating every failed arrangement as identical.
How should the child's wishes and feelings be understood?
The court considers how those wishes and feelings should be ascertained and whether additional professional work is necessary.
Is Cafcass or Cafcass Cymru advice required?
Further safeguarding or welfare advice may be needed, particularly where circumstances have changed or the reasons for non-compliance raise wider welfare concerns.
Would another or varied order create or reduce risk?
The court must manage safeguarding and consider the impact of any further child arrangements order.
What solution is likely to work now?
The court considers the welfare checklist and can look at variation, clarification, intervention or enforcement rather than treating sanction as the only available response.
What can the Family Court do?
The court has a broad range of responses. Which, if any, is appropriate depends on the findings, reasons for non-compliance, proportionality, risk and the child's welfare.
No breach established
If the alleged non-compliance is not established to the required standard, the court cannot proceed on the basis that the person committed that breach.
No enforcement order
A statutory unpaid-work enforcement order cannot be made for a failure where the court is satisfied that the person had a reasonable excuse.
Make the arrangements more defined
A vague or repeatedly disputed arrangement may require clearer handover times, locations or practical provisions.
Change the child arrangements order
The court can reconsider contact or living arrangements where enforcement proceedings show that the existing structure is no longer appropriate.
Direct support or dispute-resolution work
The court can consider parenting interventions or non-court dispute resolution where appropriate and safe.
Unpaid work
Where the statutory conditions are met, the court can impose an enforcement order requiring unpaid work, or suspend such an order.
Compensation
The court can order compensation for qualifying financial loss caused by breach, subject to the statutory requirements.
Fine or committal
The court retains contempt powers, including fines and committal in appropriate cases. Those are serious sanctions governed by their own procedural safeguards.
Obtain more information first
The court may require safeguarding enquiries, professional advice or factual determination before deciding the appropriate response.
An unpaid-work order is not automatic
The statutory enforcement order is a specific sanction with statutory preconditions. It is not simply another name for the enforcement hearing.
The court must be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that a provision of the child arrangements order was not complied with.
The court cannot impose the order where the person establishes a reasonable excuse for that failure.
The court considers whether unpaid work is necessary to secure compliance and whether its effect is proportionate to the seriousness of the breach.
An enforcement order can require between 40 and 200 hours of unpaid work, subject to the statutory framework and relevant restrictions.
The statutory enforcement regime contains restrictions requiring the person to have received, or otherwise been informed of, the relevant warning notice. Child arrangements orders made after 8 December 2008 should already contain the warning notice. For an older order, Form C78 can be used where a warning notice needs to be attached.
Compensation is for financial loss — not general upset
If a failure to comply with a child arrangements order causes a qualifying person financial loss, the court can make an order requiring compensation where the statutory requirements are satisfied.
The amount cannot exceed the actual financial loss, and the court must take account of the financial circumstances of the person ordered to pay and the welfare of the child.
Identify the expense and explain how it was caused by the particular failure to comply.
Receipts, booking confirmations, cancellation evidence or other records may be important where compensation is sought.
The statutory remedy concerns financial loss. Anger, upset and inconvenience do not by themselves establish a compensable monetary loss under section 11O.
From “contact was stopped” to an issue the court can actually determine
This example is deliberately simple. It shows the difference between a broad accusation and an enforcement issue structured around the wording of the order and the evidence.
“The child shall spend time with the father from Friday at 5.00pm until Sunday at 5.00pm on alternate weekends. The mother shall make the child available for collection from [location].”
The applicant says he attended the named location shortly before 5.00pm and the child was not made available.
Messages sent at 5.05pm and 5.18pm, travel records and a message later stating that the child would not be attending.
The respondent says the child became acutely unwell that afternoon and produces evidence about the illness and communications concerning it.
The court first identifies precisely what paragraph 5 required and what occurred at the relevant time.
If non-compliance is established, the court considers the evidence for the explanation and whether reasonable excuse is proved.
Even after a breach without reasonable excuse, the court must decide what response is necessary and proportionate.
The court can consider whether the arrangements remain workable or require clarification, variation or other intervention.
The enforcement pathway
The precise case-management route depends on the court area and whether the case is operating under the traditional Child Arrangements Programme or the Child Focused Model. The central enforcement questions remain substantially the same.
The court receives the enforcement application and identifies the existing order and proceedings.
Where possible, enforcement should return to the judge previously dealing with the case.
The court considers whether updated Cafcass or Cafcass Cymru safeguarding work or other information is needed.
If the relevant facts are not agreed, evidence may be needed before sanction or another response can be considered.
That may involve no sanction, enforcement, intervention, clarification, variation, compensation or another proportionate order.
Under the traditional Child Arrangements Programme, PD12B provides for enforcement applications to be listed, if possible before the previously allocated judge, within 20 working days of issue. Under the Child Focused Model, the timing depends in part on whether a new or updated Child Impact Report is required.
What evidence is actually useful in a C79 case?
The best evidence usually proves a specific proposition. It does not require every communication between the parties since separation.
The sealed order
The starting point is the operative wording you say was not complied with. Use the correct and most recent order.
Contemporaneous communications
Messages sent at the time can show what was said, whether arrangements changed and what explanation was given.
Handover or travel evidence
Where disputed, objective evidence about attendance, travel or timing can help establish what actually occurred.
Admissions
A clear admission that an arrangement did not take place can narrow the factual dispute, although the reason may remain contested.
Evidence relevant to excuse
Medical, safeguarding or other records may matter where the reason for non-compliance is itself an issue requiring determination.
Financial-loss evidence
Where compensation is sought, retain documents proving the expense, loss and connection between that loss and the alleged breach.
Where there are repeated alleged breaches, build the sequence first: date, order provision, what should have happened, what occurred, evidence and explanation. Then identify the small number of documents that actually prove each important point.
Use the Six-Question Check before relying on an important conclusion
Enforcement can involve Cafcass material, safeguarding information, professional records or explanations recorded by third parties. Before treating a conclusion as established fact, test what the material actually says and how it was reached.
Enforcement application quality check
Read the application once as the person affected by the events — and again as a judge who knows only the order and the evidence put before the court.
Have a Child Arrangements Order that is not being followed?
Start with the latest sealed order and a short list of the alleged breaches by date. JSH Law can help identify what the order actually requires, organise the evidence, distinguish enforcement from variation and prepare the next defined piece of work.
I cannot work out whether this is enforcement or variation
Review the order, what has changed and the immediate procedural problem before making another application.
Family Court Navigation →I have repeated breaches and too much evidence
Build a focused incident chronology and link each alleged breach to the relevant provision and supporting material.
Evidence & Chronology Help →I need the application or statement organised
Turn the order, chronology and evidence into clear court material directed to the issues the judge actually needs to determine.
Court Document Support →I have an enforcement hearing coming up
Prepare the alleged breaches, evidence, explanations, safeguarding issues and orders sought before the hearing.
Hearing & McKenzie Friend Support →You do not need to send the whole case file first. Start with the latest sealed order, the C79 if already filed, the hearing date if known and a short chronology of the alleged breaches.
Book a 15-minute initial consultationRules and official guidance
The wording of the order in your own case comes first. These official sources set out the general statutory and procedural framework for enforcement.
Practical family-court guidance designed to help you understand what matters next
This enforcement guide sits within a wider library of JSH Law resources for litigants in person. The aim is not to overwhelm you with legal information, but to help you identify the actual procedural problem, organise the evidence proportionately and understand what the court needs to decide next.
Evidence-led
Guidance is built around distinguishing allegation, evidence, professional opinion and court finding — and tracing important conclusions back to their source.
Procedurally grounded
Resources connect practical preparation with the Family Procedure Rules, Practice Directions, court orders and the procedural stage of the case.
Accessible by design
Content is structured for clarity on phone, tablet and desktop, with focused sections intended to reduce unnecessary complexity and information overload.
Clear & practical
The emphasis is on plain English, usable preparation and identifying what you may need to do next — without oversimplifying the law or the evidence.
This C79 enforcement guide is one part of the wider JSH Law resource library. Browse practical guidance on Cafcass, safeguarding, evidence, hearings, court documents, applications and case preparation.
Browse All ResourcesThis guide provides general legal and procedural information about enforcement of child arrangements orders in England and Wales. It is not individual legal advice and cannot determine whether a breach or reasonable excuse will be established in a particular case.
Enforcement is fact-sensitive. The exact wording of the child arrangements order, warning notice, alleged incident, evidence, explanation for non-compliance, safeguarding position and child's welfare can all affect the court's decision.
A C79 enforcement application is not interchangeable with an application to vary or discharge an order, an urgent protective application or contempt proceedings. The court can nevertheless consider a range of responses, including variation, when dealing with enforcement.
Court forms, fees and procedural arrangements can change. Always use the current C79 published by HMCTS and check the latest Family Procedure Rules, Practice Directions and the directions in your own case.
JSH Law Ltd provides non-reserved legal services, litigation support and McKenzie Friend assistance. JSH Law Ltd is not authorised or regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and does not conduct litigation or provide reserved legal representation on your behalf. Litigants in person remain responsible for their proceedings, deadlines, filing, service and compliance with court orders unless a lawful task has expressly been agreed otherwise.
Procedural position reviewed: September 2026.
