Shared care information for maintenance decisions

Shared care information for maintenance should describe overnight stays for each child. A broad statement that care is 'equal' may conceal different schedules, cancelled stays or arrangements that apply to only one sibling. CMS uses its own shared-care rules. ^[1]

Build a child-specific overnight record

Start with the usual weekly pattern, then record holidays and variations. Mark planned nights separately from those that actually happened. Keep relevant agreements or messages showing changes, without turning every handover into an argument about money.

A court order may describe an intended arrangement, while the lived pattern has changed. Give CMS both pieces of information and explain the difference. Daytime contact, collecting a child from school and paying for activities should not be silently counted as overnight care.

Explain disagreements precisely

Identify the disputed period and the nights in question. A calendar with a short explanation is more useful than competing totals with no dates. If two children follow different arrangements, do not average their nights into one figure.

Keep financial and welfare decisions separate. Do not change a child's living arrangements solely to influence a calculation. Use challenging a maintenance decision for a calculation dispute; preparing a CMS enquiry covers the remaining application information. Where the underlying care arrangement is unsafe or unworkable, obtain family advice about that issue directly.

Show the period behind an overnight total A number such as eighty nights has little meaning without the period it describes. State the start and end dates, the regular pattern and any additional holiday stays. Keep the counting method consistent, so a weekend from Friday evening to Sunday evening is not confused with three nights merely because it touches three calendar dates. If a total is an annual projection rather than a completed year's record, label it as a projection and explain the arrangement on which it is based.

The government calculation guidance refers to a court order or parental agreement when describing the basis for shared-care nights. Give CMS the relevant document and identify any difference between that arrangement and what is happening. Do not silently replace an agreed future schedule with a historic total, or treat a hoped-for schedule as agreed. A clear distinction lets the service consider the appropriate evidence and rules instead of choosing between figures that were calculated on incompatible assumptions. ^[1]

Record variations without losing the original plan When a stay is cancelled, extended or moved, keep the planned entry visible and add what occurred. Include a brief reason where it is known, such as illness or an agreed holiday change, without turning the calendar into an account of unrelated adult grievances. Save the message or other record confirming the adjustment where safely available. If the reason is disputed, record that disagreement rather than assigning blame as though it were an established fact.

Different children may need separate entries on the same date. One sibling may attend a residential activity while another stays with a parent; an older child may follow a different holiday routine. Identify unusual circumstances and ask CMS how they should be treated. Do not assume that every night away from the receiving parent's home is automatically a night of care by the paying parent. Where local authority overnight care is involved, flag it specifically because the official guidance addresses that situation separately. ^[1]

Distinguish overnight evidence from a broader care dispute School collections, appointments and daytime supervision may be important to the child's life without being overnight stays. Record them separately where a broader account of day-to-day care is relevant. If the question concerns which parent has main day-to-day care, explain the practical responsibilities and seek guidance on that issue instead of assuming it can be answered by applying an overnight reduction table alone. Labels such as equal parenting can obscure the particular decision CMS needs to make.

The record should describe care rather than encourage changes designed around a payment threshold. If the arrangement is unsafe, exhausting or disruptive to school, raise that welfare issue through suitable family advice. A maintenance calculation cannot by itself approve a proposed living arrangement or resolve a safeguarding concern. Equally, disagreement over maintenance should not cause a parent to rewrite a child's diary retrospectively. Maintaining separate financial and welfare questions makes the evidence more reliable for both purposes.

Respond to a disagreement with dates and documents Ask which period or assumption is disputed. A focused response might explain that a holiday week was counted twice, that an arrangement began later than stated, or that siblings were incorrectly combined. Attach the relevant calendar extract and supporting agreement with clear labels. Where the evidence does not establish an exact figure, say what can be confirmed and what remains uncertain. CMS has rules for assessing shared care, including circumstances where parents agree that overnight stays occur but dispute their number. [1]

After a decision, retain the record used and note the basis accepted by the service. Report a later change through the proper channel, identifying when the agreement or pattern changed. If the original decision used incorrect information, consider its challenge route rather than treating every correction as a new care event. Keep payment questions tied to the issued assessment and its effective date. A well-maintained diary supports a reasoned decision; it is not authority to invent a deduction before CMS has addressed the issue.