Holiday contact

I desperately need some advise. I got residence of my child last year after an extremely emotional court hearing. My ex partner had access every other weekend and 35 days in the holidays as he works in unsociable hours. Recently, we had a big clash with holidays as in my view the normal contact in suspended in the holiday period but he is stating that normal contact is to continue in holidays as well as the 30 days he has been given. I really dont want to end up in court again but at the sametime, I dont want him to threaten me and push me around when ever things dont go his way. Also, what he stated was that a contact order only lasts a year, is that true? Some help please!!!

Hi A contact order only lasts a year if a time limit has been put on it by the court that issued it. Otherwise it lasts until a new one is made, or the child becomes an adult.

My partner has a contact order and his holiday contact is additional to normal contact, he has to incorporate his weeks that he has with his daughter either onto a weekend or into a weekend if that makes sense, but it very much depends on the wording of your contact order with regards to the holiday days, and whether they are court dictated, or "dates to be agreed between the parties"

Unless the order states differently it will last until the child is 16 years old. The terms of the order need to be adhered to. Does the order actually state that normal contact is to be suspended during the holidays?

I just states that the father should get 30days per annum on holidays.

Unless there is something else in there that suspends normal contact then I would suggest that the 30 days is additional to normal contact. If this isnt happening he could potentially return to court to have the order enforced.

Bearing in mind the school holidays are 13 weeks, it appears that he gets 1/3 of the holidays. What my partner has done with his contact order is agree in writing all of the dates up to New Year, and in October after the residence hearing they will establish next years holidays - you may find this approach easier, and less likely to cause any issues?

When its a 50/50 holiday contact, does it normally say that normal contact is suspended?

Sorry I dont think your question is very clear?

Do you mean if a NRP has a contact order for half of the holidays? I think it might help if you could be clear about what the issues are and then people can advise more, there are lots of people on here with experience of contact orders.

Contact orders can be worded in various different ways, and I dont think there is a "one size fits all"