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Children Act 1989 section 16 — Family assistance orders

TL;DR. Section 16 empowers the court — in any family proceedings where it has power to make a Part II section 8 order — to make a "family assistance order" (FAO) requiring a Cafcass officer (or, in Wales, a Welsh family proceedings officer), or a local authority officer, "to advise, assist and (where appropriate) befriend" named persons. Maximum duration is 12 months (subsection (5)). Consent of named persons (other than the child) is required (subsection (3)(b)). Critically for PA-context cases, subsection (4A) provides that where the FAO runs alongside a contact provision in a child arrangements order, the officer may be directed to "give advice and assistance as regards establishing, improving and maintaining contact" — the canonical statutory route for ongoing Cafcass support during contact rebuilding. Subsection (6) also permits direction to the officer to report to the court on whether the section 8 order ought to be varied or discharged — the operational hook for judicial monitoring of CAO compliance.

Source: legislation.gov.uk — Crown copyright, Open Government Licence v3.0. · Fetched: 2026-06-13 · Editorial commentary licence: CC BY 4.0

Full statutory text (verbatim)

16 Family assistance orders.

(1) Where, in any family proceedings, the court has power to make an order under this Part with respect to any child, it may (whether or not it makes such an order) make an order requiring—

(a) an officer of the Service or a Welsh family proceedings officer; or

(b) a local authority to make an officer of the authority available,

to advise, assist and (where appropriate) befriend any person named in the order.

(2) The persons who may be named in an order under this section ("a family assistance order") are—

(a) any parent, guardian or special guardian of the child;

(b) any person with whom the child is living or who is named in a child arrangements order as a person with whom the child is to live, spend time or otherwise have contact;

© the child himself.

(3) No court may make a family assistance order unless—

(a) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [Subsection (3)(a) repealed by Children and Adoption Act 2006 — the prior "exceptional circumstances" requirement was removed.]

(b) it has obtained the consent of every person to be named in the order other than the child.

(4) A family assistance order may direct—

(a) the person named in the order; or

(b) such of the persons named in the order as may be specified in the order,

to take such steps as may be so specified with a view to enabling the officer concerned to be kept informed of the address of any person named in the order and to be allowed to visit any such person.

(4A) If the court makes a family assistance order with respect to a child and the order is to be in force at the same time as a contact provision contained in a child arrangements order made with respect to the child, the family assistance order may direct the officer concerned to give advice and assistance as regards establishing, improving and maintaining contact to such of the persons named in the order as may be specified in the order.

(4B) In subsection (4A) "contact provision" means provision which regulates arrangements relating to—

(a) with whom a child is to spend time or otherwise have contact, or

(b) when a child is to spend time or otherwise have contact with any person.

(5) Unless it specifies a shorter period, a family assistance order shall have effect for a period of twelve months beginning with the day on which it is made.

(6) If the court makes a family assistance order with respect to a child and the order is to be in force at the same time as a section 8 order made with respect to the child, the family assistance order may direct the officer concerned to report to the court on such matters relating to the section 8 order as the court may require (including the question whether the section 8 order ought to be varied or discharged).

(7) A family assistance order shall not be made so as to require a local authority to make an officer of theirs available unless—

(a) the authority agree; or

(b) the child concerned lives or will live within their area.

(8) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [Repealed.]

(9) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [Repealed.]

Why section 16 matters for parental-alienation analysis

The family-assistance-order (FAO) regime under section 16 is one of the most under-utilised statutory tools in the English family-court PA-context toolkit. The 2006 Children and Adoption Act amendments removed the prior "exceptional circumstances" threshold (formerly at subsection (3)(a), now repealed) — making FAOs more readily available — but practitioner uptake has remained modest.

Subsection (4A) — contact-rebuilding advice and assistance

Subsection (4A) is the canonical statutory hook for ongoing Cafcass involvement in contact rebuilding. Where a CAO contains a contact provision (and a parallel FAO is made), the officer may be directed to "give advice and assistance as regards establishing, improving and maintaining contact". This is the operative provision under which Cafcass officers can:

  • Liaise with the parties between contact sessions to address practical issues;
  • Coach reluctant children through the resumption of contact;
  • Support the obstructed parent through the early stages of re-established contact;
  • Monitor handover dynamics and report concerns to the court;
  • Coordinate with therapeutic providers (e.g., family-based PA-intervention programmes).

In PA-context cases where contact has been disrupted for a sustained period, an FAO can provide the structured professional support that distinguishes a sustainable rebuild from a re-collapse.

Subsection (6) — judicial monitoring of CAO compliance

Subsection (6) permits the court to direct the Cafcass officer to report to the court on matters relating to the section 8 order — including specifically "whether the section 8 order ought to be varied or discharged." This is the operational hook for scheduled judicial monitoring of CAO compliance. In sustained PA-context cases, a court may make a CAO with a parallel FAO under subsection (6) directing the officer to report at a fixed review hearing on whether the CAO is operating as intended. This regularises judicial oversight without requiring fresh applications each time.

The requirement that the court obtain "the consent of every person to be named in the order other than the child" is operationally important. In PA-context litigation the obstructing parent may refuse consent — preventing the FAO. This is one of the structural limitations of the regime. Where consent is refused, the court must rely on the s.11(7)(b) conditional-CAO route (which does not require consent) for ongoing structured intervention.

12-month maximum duration under subsection (5)

The 12-month default duration is designed to provide structured but time-limited support, not indefinite oversight. In PA-context cases requiring longer-term support, the court may make repeat FAOs (subject to repeat consent under (3)(b)) or rely on alternative architectures (e.g., long-term s.11(7)(b) conditions).

Local-authority alternative under subsection (1)(b) and (7)

Subsection (1)(b) permits direction to a local authority officer in lieu of Cafcass — subject to local-authority agreement or the child living within the authority's area (subsection (7)). This is operationally relevant where local-authority involvement is already engaged (e.g., a parallel section 47 child-protection inquiry).

Cross-references within the AntiAlienate Knowledge Base

  • Companion CA 1989 statutes: s.1 (welfare paramountcy) · s.8 (orders toolkit) · s.11 (general principles + conditional CAOs) · ss.11J + 11O (enforcement framework)
  • Service: Cafcass (Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service) — the principal "officer of the Service" referred to in subsection (1)(a)
  • Welsh equivalent: Cafcass Cymru — Welsh family proceedings officers
  • Re-arc case-law line: Re A [2019] EWCA Civ 1735 → Re S [2020] EWCA Civ 568 → Re H-N [2021] EWCA Civ 448 → Re C [2023] EWHC 345 (Fam)
  • Jurisdiction page: England and Wales

Primary source

  • legislation.gov.uk canonical URL: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1989/41/section/16
  • Statute citation: Children Act 1989 (1989 c.41), section 16 (substantially amended by Children and Adoption Act 2006 ss.6-7, in force 1 October 2007 — removing the prior "exceptional circumstances" threshold and adding subsection (4A); further amended by Children and Families Act 2014 for child-arrangements-order terminology)
  • Status: Crown copyright; published under the Open Government Licence v3.0 — verbatim reproduction permitted.

Sources & authoritative references

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