Child Focused Court Model UK — What Replaced SPIP and How It Works

If someone told you to complete SPIP — the Separated Parents Information Programme — and you went looking for information, you might have noticed that the programme no longer exists. It was replaced. The private-law family court process for child-arrangement disputes in England is being restructured under what's called the Child Focused Model, and it changes how your case moves through the system in ways that matter.

Here's what actually changed, what "Planning Together for Children" involves, and what it means for parents navigating the process right now.

What the Child Focused Model Replaced

The old system — the Child Arrangements Programme (CAP) — followed a predictable but slow sequence. You filed a C100, attended a First Hearing (FHDRA), and then waited through multiple interim hearings. Cafcass typically didn't conduct a full welfare report until near the end of the case. Months passed. Backlogs grew. By the time a judge had a proper picture of the children's situation, the family had often been in limbo for over a year.

The Child Focused Model, originally trialled as the Private Law Pathfinder project, is live in all of Wales and major English cities such as Birmingham and West Yorkshire, with other English counties transitioning during 2026 and 2027. It has £17 million in funding for the 2026–27 financial year. The core change: front-loading the investigation.

Where the local court operates under the Child Focused Model, filing a C100 leads Cafcass to prepare a Child Impact Report (CIR) at the very start — before the first hearing. The officer interviews both parents, speaks with the children, pulls records from schools and GPs, and runs police and local authority checks. The judge receives a professional assessment of the child's lived experience before they've even met the parents.

The model's reported results have been significant: average case delays have been cut by seven and a half months, and family court backlogs have been halved. But the speed cuts both ways — parents who aren't ready from day one can find themselves behind before they've started.

Planning Together for Children: The Course That Replaced SPIP

If a child arrangements dispute reaches the family court, judges routinely direct both parents to complete "Planning Together for Children" (PTFC). This is Cafcass's replacement for the old SPIP, coordinated by Action for Children on behalf of Cafcass.

The course has three phases:

1. Self-directed e-learning module (roughly 2 hours): Online material you complete at your own pace, covering the impact of parental conflict on children, communication strategies, and the principles behind child-focused arrangements
2. Online group workshop (2.5 hours): A facilitated session with other separating parents. Co-parents are always placed in separate groups — you won't be in the same session as your ex
3. Interactive parenting plan creation: The practical output. You work through a structured framework to draft a plan covering living arrangements, contact schedules, decision-making, holidays, and communication protocols

There are some important operational details:

• The course is free — there's no charge to parents
• You cannot self-refer. Access is strictly through a recommendation from a Cafcass Family Court Advisor or a formal court order. You can't sign up on your own initiative
• It's only available when there are no active safeguarding concerns. If there are verified domestic abuse or child protection issues, the court will use different pathways
• Non-completion has consequences. If you don't finish the course, the provider notifies Cafcass and the court. Judges take non-compliance seriously, and it can damage your position in proceedings

Our Child's Plan — The Working Document

The practical output from Planning Together for Children is a document called "Our Child's Plan." This is Cafcass's structured template that parents use to record their arrangements.

The plan covers:

• Where the children will live and the weekly contact schedule
• How holidays, birthdays, and special occasions will be divided
• Decision-making arrangements for education, healthcare, religion, and travel
• Communication rules between the households
• How changes to the plan will be managed as children grow

The catch that trips up many parents: the template asks you to propose concrete schedules and commitments. If you haven't thought through the details — how a week-on/week-off rotation works with your children's school calendar, or how you'll handle handovers given the distance between households — the planning exercise exposes those gaps quickly.

The plan itself is not automatically legally binding. It's a voluntary agreement. To make it enforceable, it needs to be converted into a Consent Order by a solicitor and approved by a judge (with a court fee of around £53 to £62). But if your case is already in court, the judge will review what you've proposed in the plan and can incorporate it into a final Child Arrangements Order.

What This Means Practically

Three things are different now compared to the old system:

Speed demands preparation. Where it applies, the Cafcass Child Impact Report is prepared before your first hearing, not after months of proceedings. Your welfare case, evidence, and proposals need to be ready when you file — not assembled gradually over multiple hearings.

The court expects structured proposals. With Planning Together for Children and the Our Child's Plan template as standard tools, judges increasingly expect parents to arrive at hearings with detailed, workable arrangements rather than vague requests for "more time" or "50/50."

Non-engagement is visible. Under the old system, a parent could coast through SPIP as a box-ticking exercise. The current framework tracks engagement more actively — completion of the PTFC course, participation in creating the plan, and willingness to propose concrete arrangements all feed into the picture the court builds of each parent.

For a step-by-step framework covering the full process — from preparing your initial Cafcass presentation to building schedules that align with the welfare checklist — the England Child Custody & Parenting Plan Guide walks through each stage of the current system.

See more England guides →