ABSTRACT
This section deals with the most frequent applications made under the Children Act 1989 and will cover only private law applications. The Children Act 1989 also deals with applications for financial provision for children, but it is unlikely that you would encounter these in your early days in practice. Furthermore, the Act also deals with public law, whereby local authorities make applications for care and/or supervision orders and/or Family Assistance Orders where there are concerns that children are suffering or are likely to suffer significant harm. Care work is very specialised and, once again, it is unlikely that you would encounter such work early in your career unless your firm specialises in it. The most common applications under the Children Act 1989 that you will see in practice at the beginning of your career are for contact or residence orders and, sometimes, specific issue or prohibited steps orders. Collectively, these are known as ‘s 8’ orders.
