A co-parenting app for parents in Edinburgh

Handovers in Edinburgh

Edinburgh handovers are usually short but can be slowed by events and festival traffic in August, which is worth planning around rather than arguing about.

Our handover checklist covers the detail worth agreeing once: where, what time, who waits, and what happens when a train or the ring road makes someone late.

School terms and holidays

City of Edinburgh Council sets its own term dates, and the Scottish pattern — earlier summer break, a fixed October week — differs from England and Wales.

Put both schools’ dates in one calendar, then split the holidays with the holiday split planner so each break is settled weeks ahead rather than the night before.

Where a child arrangement order fits in

Scotland has its own family law. What parents elsewhere call a child arrangements order is, in Scotland, an order under section 11 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995. The everyday planning is the same; the court route is not.

Our guide to child arrangement orders in the UK walks through mediation and the MIAM, applying on form C100, what the court weighs up, and how to run the schedule once one exists. If you already have an order, the calendar is simply where you keep it working week to week. None of this is legal advice — for that, speak to a solicitor or a mediator.

Choosing a pattern that survives a real week

Most families in Edinburgh start from one of a handful of patterns and adjust it around work and school: week-on/week-off, 2-2-3 or one of the 50/50 options. If shifts are part of your week, the shift-worker page is the better starting point.

Ask other parents in Edinburgh and across the UK

A quiet forum where parents ask questions and share what worked across their two households — schedules, handovers, school and shared costs. Anyone can read it. To post, start your free trial; you can do so anonymously, and nothing from your family calendar is ever shared. It is not legal advice.