Child Maintenance Service

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Parents of qualifying children and young persons are responsible for maintaining them under section 1 of the Child Support Act 1991 (CSA 1991). The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is responsible for the calculation and collection of child support maintenance and acts through the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) in situations where a private arrangement is not possible. No one is obliged to apply for a maintenance calculation and private arrangements are encouraged. There are three key terms in use:

  1. •

    non-resident parent (NRP)—a parent (including adoptive parents and parents by virtue of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 but excluding step-parents) who does not live in the same household as their child, sometimes referred to as the ‘paying parent’

  2. •

    qualifying child (QC)—a child or young person, one or both of whose parents can be described as a NRP (ie they do not live with that parent), and

  3. •

    person with care (PWC)—the person with whom the child (the QC) lives (who will usually but not necessarily be their parent), sometimes referred to as the receiving parent

The CMS uses a percentage

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Latest Family News

Family Procedure Rules 2010 Practice Direction Update No 5 of 2025

The fifth Family Procedure Rules 2010 (FPR 2010) Practice Direction (PD) update of 2025 has been issued, making one amendment to the existing FPR 2010, PD 36Z (Pilot scheme: Private law reform: Investigative approach), which makes provision for what has become known as the Pathfinder pilot. Pathfinder is piloting, in certain courts, a new procedural approach to certain private law proceedings relating to children in place of the Child Arrangements Programme. The third FPR 2010, PD Update of 2025 added the three Designated Family Judge areas in the Black Country and Shropshire, Hereford and Worcestershire and Staffordshire to FPR 2010, PD 36Z. The Family Court locations in these three areas were listed in a new paragraph 1.4E of FPR 2010, PD 36Z (see LNB News 31/07/2025 27). The fifth FPR 2010 PD Update of 2025 amends FPR 2010, PD 36Z to add to paragraph 1.3(b) a reference to paragraph 1.4E, thereby ensuring that Family Courts in these three Designated Family Judge areas will follow the Pathfinder procedure from 11 November 2025 (as long as the other qualifying conditions specified in FPR 2010, PD 36Z are met). The PD amendment is in force on 11 November 2025.

Update to the Family Public Law (FPL) digital portal—submitting an application during existing proceedings

HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) FPL service team has confirmed that from 18 November 2025, where an application is submitted during existing proceedings, if the judge is satisfied with the application, the draft order and the other information uploaded, they will be able to approve it without needing to make manual amendments. A coversheet will be added to the order with the judge’s name and the date of approval, allowing it to be issued promptly and more efficiently. This approach mirrors the process already in place for financial remedy consent order proceedings. Guidance on making an additional or placement application is available on GOV.UK. To support this change, the draft order uploaded should be formatted so it can be issued directly to parties. All references in the draft order to ‘DRAFT’ and watermarks should be removed.

Family weekly highlights—6 November 2025

This week's edition of the Family weekly highlights includes details of updated Courts and Tribunals Judiciary AI guidance for the judiciary, the Family Public Law release note launching a query case management feature and Christmas and New Year opening times for courts and tribunals. Recent judgments on appeals against care and placement orders, applications for return orders and parental orders where a child is born via international surrogacy are also considered.

Family Public Law (FPL) release note launches query case management feature

HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) FPL service team have confirmed that a new query management feature will be launching on the FPL service on 12 November 2025. This feature is part of a wider HMCTS initiative to bring consistency to all digital services. It aims to reduce reliance on email communication and introduces a new way for professional users to communicate directly with the HMCTS FPL administrative team within the digital case file itself.

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