What makes it a parenting plan
The Family Law Act sets only a few conditions, and the department’s fact sheet lists them.
- Both parents make it. It must be made, signed and dated by both parents of the child. Other people, such as grandparents and step-parents, can also be included.
- It is in writing. It can take any form, as long as it is written, signed and dated by both parents. Legal Aid Queensland adds that it does not have to be witnessed.
- No one is pressured into it. It must be made free from any threat, duress or coercion, which the fact sheet says the Act requires.
- It can change. Parents can change it at any time, as long as both agree.
The court’s advice is to get legal advice before entering into a parenting plan. Legal Aid Queensland lists the moments it suggests legal advice, including before signing a plan, and if feeling threatened or intimidated led you to sign a plan or consent orders against your wishes.
What a plan can cover
A plan can deal with any part of a child’s care, welfare and development, and the fact sheet asks that it be practical, simple and as specific as possible. These are the kinds of things it says a plan may cover:
Where and with whom
- who the child will live with
- how much time the child spends with each parent
- time with other people, such as grandparents
- how the child keeps in touch with each parent or others, for example by phone, email or letters
- birthdays, holidays and other special days
From the department’s fact sheet.
How decisions get made
- how parental responsibility, including decisions on major long-term issues, is shared
- how the parents will consult each other on those decisions
- how the plan can be changed, or disagreements about it resolved
- child support, where special rules apply
- anything else significant about the child’s care, welfare and development
From the department’s fact sheet.
Major long-term issues cover matters such as the child’s health, education, religious and cultural upbringing, and name, as well as significant changes to where the child lives.
Time. The law contains no presumption about how much time a child should spend with each parent. Some people assume the law entitles parents to equal time; the fact sheet says “this has never been the case”. The factors a court would weigh are a useful checklist for a plan too: they are set out in what the court must consider.
Room to grow. The fact sheet suggests including a way to resolve disputes about the plan or to vary it, because children’s needs change as they get older, for example when they start primary or secondary school.
Money and property. A plan can mention spousal maintenance or property, but those parts are not legally enforceable. Child support has its own rules: see how child support is assessed, and Services Australia for anything about agreements.
When there is already a court order
If a court order sets out the parenting arrangements, parents can agree to change them through a parenting plan, unless the order says otherwise. Where the new plan is inconsistent with the old order, those parts of the order may no longer be enforceable.
A conversation is not enough. The court says that talking about changing an order, even when both people agree, does not change it: the order applies until a court formally changes it or, in some situations, the parents enter into a parenting plan.
If the family goes to court later
A plan does not bind a court, but it is not ignored. When making parenting orders, the court must consider the terms of the most recent parenting plan if it is in the child’s best interests to do so, and it will consider how far each parent has met their obligations to the child, which may include the plan’s terms.
Parents who want the plan to be binding can ask the court to make consent orders in the same terms. Once made, those orders have the same effect as any other parenting order. That path is in parenting orders.
How Services Australia reads your plan
Care affects child support and family payments, so the plan matters there too. Services Australia says you must give it a copy of any written plan about sharing the care of a child, whether that is a parenting plan, another kind of agreement or a court order.
What counts is the care that actually happens. If you change from what the plan says, Services Australia may base payments on the care you are really providing. It asks to be told about changes straight away; if it is not told within 28 days, your new level of care may apply only from the date you tell it, you may end up with a child support debt or overpayment, or your assessment may be suspended or ended.
A parenting plan also counts as a written care arrangement. If one parent stops following it without the other agreeing, Services Australia may use the care in the plan for an interim period instead of the actual care. With a parenting plan, that interim period is at most 14 weeks from the day the care changed.
An illustration, not anyone’s family
A plan says the children spend 9 nights a fortnight in one home and 5 nights in the other. Services Australia counts care in nights: 5 to 9 nights a fortnight is its “shared care” level, so on these numbers both homes sit in shared care. What that means for payments is in how child support is assessed.
Help with making one
The department names the Family Relationship Advice Line for information, advice and referrals to local services such as a Family Relationship Centre.
The line is 1800 050 321, Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm and Saturday 10am to 4pm local time, closed Sundays and national public holidays. More on what it does is in help for parents in Queensland.
Agreeing face to face is not safe for every family. The department’s 2024 fact sheet says parents are not encouraged to consult each other if it would not be safe to do so. If that is your situation, the support lines are on the home page, and in an emergency call Triple Zero (000).
Next guide Parenting orders: what a court order can say, and following one