On Wednesday 14th October 2020, England’s new three-tier COVID restrictions came into force. Local areas of concern are now reviewed and will be placed into one of three tiers of restriction. The system works as follows:
Tier one: Medium
Tier two: High
Tier three: Very High
Many in the North of England now have further additional measures in place, with tier-two restrictions stretched across much of the Northern Counties.
But what does this mean for separated parents?
For many separated parents, co-parenting during the pandemic has been tough – so what is the likely impact of the latest round of restrictions on child arrangements?
It is important for children to be able to see and communicate with friends, especially during difficult times. Parents should consider this and make arrangements for this to be possible where it is safe to do so. As it stands, children and young people will count towards a group of six in England. This is worth bearing in mind if you agree to let your children have friends in the house or garden (providing you are in a Tier-one zone), remembering that you as a parent will also count towards the limit of six people.
You may have screen time arrangements in place for your children. Consider whether it may be possible to add some flexibility to allow your children to communicate with friends virtually. This would be especially important where the members of your household already meet or exceed a group of six.
It has been the case throughout the pandemic that children under 18 that do not live in the same household as their parents or someone with parental responsibility can be moved between their homes to continue existing child arrangements. However, it may be worth considering and discussing flexibility to these arrangements or putting backup arrangements in place for times when members of one household are told to self-isolate. This may also be the case for long-distance parents, where one parent lives in a tier-three zone and travel to and from the area is restricted.
At such an anxious and unsettling time, the most important thing to consider is the overall welfare of the child or children. Parents should carefully consider the options available to them in order to resolve any dispute concerning their child’s wellbeing and their right to have a meaningful relationship with both parents.
Communication between parents during this difficult time and uncertainty can be strained, especially when as solicitors and mediators we are seeing issues where one parent is very cautious of the current pandemic and the other parent is not taking the rules and regulations serious enough. It is important for both parties to sit back and look at the situation from the other party’s perspective and listen to their concerns. With the prospect of yet another lockdown and school closures, parties need to work together if they are having to juggle child care, home schooling and working.
To aid communication between parents, there are a range of professionals who can assist including lawyers, mediators and therapists.
At Consilia Mediation we can help you and your former partner agree arrangements for your children. Through the process of family mediation we can help you to reach mutually agreeable proposals regarding your children. Mediation can also help you to improve/maintain a healthy dialogue as parents so that you can parent together more effectively in a time of uncertainty and social restrictions.
One of the major benefits of the mediation process is that we recognise that as parents you are best placed to make decisions around the care of your children. Our role is to facilitate those discussions so that you are able to make decisions for the benefit of your family going forward.
Check out our dedicated Consilia Mediation website for more information about mediation and our two experienced accredited solicitor mediators, Laura Clapton and Sarah Manning. Alternatively, you can give us a call on 0113 322 9222 or email us at mediation@consilialegal.co.uk.
