If you and your ex-partner agree on how to care for your children, you don’t need to do anything through the court.
However, you might find it useful to write your arrangements down as a private agreement so you both clearly understand what you've agreed. This private agreement is also called a parenting plan.
A parenting plan will help you work through and record decisions like:
You can get help with your parenting plan through:
If you both want to, you can get the Family Court to make your private agreement or parenting plan into a Consent Order. This means that if one person breaks the agreement, you can get the court to enforce it. The court does not make any decisions for you when making a Consent Order. It is using the agreement you've already made and making it enforceable by the court.
You don’t need help from a lawyer to get a Consent Order, but you do need to pay court costs. You must complete the Parenting Through Separation course before applying for the Order, unless you can provide the court with a sufficient reason why you don't want to attend.