Help centre

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14 help topics shown

• Professional read-only access

  From Settings → Exports / court report, invite a solicitor, barrister, mediator, Cafcass officer or guardian. Select the shared sections, date range and expiry, then copy the private link. Access is read-only and can be revoked. The granting parent can open Access history to see link creation, openings, revocation and rejected expired/revoked attempts. Link use does not verify recipient identity. Already downloaded copies cannot be recalled. Private contacts, journals and reports are not shared through this portal.

• Private document share links

  Open Documents, find your own private file and choose Share private link. Name the recipient and choose an expiry, then copy the link immediately. Only a digital fingerprint of the secret link is stored. Anyone holding the link can open it until expiry or revocation. Open the same sharing panel to revoke it or view its open history. Your co-parent is not notified. Archiving, sharing the file with your co-parent or leaving the family makes private link access unavailable. Downloaded copies cannot be recalled.

• Time share: agreed and actual

  Open Time share at the bottom of Home, below Guidance, or from Settings. Choose a period and days or overnights. Actual means past time derived from the shared calendar, not independently verified attendance; future scheduled time is shown separately. Record an existing agreed arrangement (50/50, alternate weekends or a custom percentage/nights per fortnight), its effective date and optionally a shared court-order document. The record shows who added it; it does not create or confirm an agreement. Earlier entries stay in the history. Agreed and actual figures appear together on Home, the full page and Exports/court report, also reachable from Settings.

• Arrangements and change requests

  Add events to the calendar for each child — school, clubs, handovers, holidays. To change something you have already agreed, send a change request: your co-parent sees the current arrangement and the proposed one side by side, with your reason, and can accept or decline. Nothing changes until they respond, and every response is kept in the record.

• Messages and the Communication Coach

  Messages cannot be edited or deleted once sent, so the record stays accurate. Before you send, the Communication Coach may offer a calmer wording. It never sends anything by itself and never changes your words without you choosing the suggestion. You can always send your original.

• Expenses and reimbursement

  Expenses are a shared record only — ChildApart never moves money. Log the amount, category and date, attach a receipt, and propose how it should be split. Your co-parent can accept or dispute with a note. Any payment happens outside ChildApart and can be recorded here afterwards. Nothing is deleted; corrections are added to the history.

• Shared and private documents

  There is one private document vault, shown in three sections: Legal documents (parenting plans, court orders, agreements), Family files (school, medical, travel, financial) and Private documents (files only you can open). Before every upload you choose who can open the file, and each file shows a “Private to you” or “Shared with your co-parent” label you can change later. Companion accounts never see documents. Downloads use short-lived links that expire in about five minutes.

• Invitations, companions and permissions

  Invite your co-parent from Family. Before sending, you are shown exactly what already in your account would become visible to them. Companion accounts — a grandparent or childminder, for example — get only the areas you tick, such as calendar or school details, and never messages, expenses or documents.

• Safety Mode

  Safety Mode reduces what is shared without ending co-parenting: contact details stay hidden, precise locations are blurred to a general area, and contact can be kept in-app only. You are shown a clear "now versus after" comparison before anything changes. Private safety notes you write are only ever visible to you.

• Notifications and quiet hours

  One set of choices controls both the in-app list and device alerts. Quiet hours silence device alerts between times you choose, in your family's timezone; incoming calls still ring unless you switch Calls off. Security and billing notices are always delivered. Device alerts never include message text, amounts, file names or health detail.

• Subscription, trial and cancelling

  Each person gets one three-month free trial, then £7.99 a month for one parent, £15.99 a month for both parents (covers your co-parent), or £87.99 a year. Payment details needed to start the trial; renews automatically until cancelled. Cancel any time before the trial ends and you won't be charged. If you stop paying, your account is read-only for 3 months so you can export your records, then it is deleted. Full details are on Plans & pricing (Settings > Plan & billing).

• Exports and records

  From Settings → Exports / court report, download a spreadsheet or PDF. Each online export has a verification code. Open https://app.childapart.com/verify, enter the code and select the original file to check its exact fingerprint. File contents stay on your device; the public result exposes no family or parent identity. A match means the file is unchanged, not that statements are true or a court has approved it. Offline and older copies may lack exact-file verification. Your private journal and other parent's private reports are never included.

• Using ChildApart on your own

  Everything works with one parent. Calendar, expenses, documents and your journal are yours alone until a co-parent joins, and you will be told what would become visible before you invite anyone. There is no pressure or deadline to invite the other parent.

• Child info and your private journal

  Open Family → your child for sizes, allergies, medications, Key contacts and emergency contacts on one page. Edit details to save clothing and shoe sizes (include UK/EU). Add as many emergency contacts as you need: these are private to you, not shared with your co-parent or professionals. School, GP and dentist details remain in Key contacts with their existing explicit sharing choices. Your journal is private and never appears in exports or reports.