We don’t give legal advice at The Transparency Project, but we know lots of parents are worried about whether or not they can see their children or send them to the other parent.

As of late last night the government guidance is clear that the exclusions to the ‘stay at home’ guidance include taking your child from one parent’s home to another.

Regrettably, Michael Gove went on national tv this morning and contradicted this advice, which no doubt unsettled and confused some – but he was wrong and has now confirmed as much.

See blog post here by our chair Lucy Reed, which was originally written before the guidance was updated, and has now been updated to reflect the clarification of the guidance. Lucy Has also published an earlier blog post for parents to help them in these difficult times.

UPDATE: The President of the Family Division has also issued guidance for parents : Coronavirus Crisis: Guidance on Compliance with Family Court Child Arrangement Orders, which covers similar issues (NB don’t be confused by references to a footnote – the original exemption was in a footnote to the guidance, but its been moved to the main text now).

See also CAFCASS guidance and our blog post trying to bring together all relevant guidance around family courts and social care issues. In short, if you have a forthcoming hearing in the Family Court it will now almost certainly be held remotely (by phone or video link) or be postponed. Family Court is still operating though.

Keep well and keep safe everybody.