A child arrangement order (CAO) gives parental responsibility to the carer who holds this order for the child. This is shared equally with anyone else who holds parental responsibility for the child.

A CAO can specify where the child lives, arrangements for family time (contact) and other arrangements.  Because under a CAO parental responsibility is shared in equal amounts, the carer with the CAO would need to consult with, and gain agreement of, the birth parents when decisions are made about the child on matters not detailed within the order.

Birth parents can apply to the court to discharge a CAO at any time.  

A special guardianship order (SGO) in contrast confers parental responsibility to the special guardian, which can be exercised to the exclusion of any other person with parental responsibility (including birth parents), apart from another special guardian. To clarify, birth parents don't lose their parental responsibility but the level of parental responsibility granted to the special guardians means they can make major as well as routine day to day decisions about a child, without the need for the parents' agreement. Such decisions include:

• Where the child lives
• Where they go to school
• Giving consent for medical treatment

Special guardianship orders can only be considered for discharge if the court gives permission for the birth parents to make the application. The court will only consider granting permission to apply to discharge the SGO if the parent can show ‘significant’ change in their circumstances, and the case is viewed to have real prospect of success. Being allowed to apply however doesn't necessarily imply that their appeal will be successful.

To view the decisions that special guardians can't make without parental consent refer to our 'Decisions a special guardian can’t take without the permission of the child’s birth parents' page.