In addition to residence and contact orders, the court can also make prohibited steps orders and specific issue orders.
A prohibited steps order is defined as ‘an order that no step which could be taken by a parent in meeting his parental responsibility for a child, and which is of a kind specified in the order, shall be taken by any person without the consent of the court’. A typical example is an order prohibiting a parent from taking any step that may result in the child being known by a new name.
A specific issue order is defined as ‘an order giving directions for the purpose of determining a specific question which has arisen, or which may arise, in connection with any aspect of parental responsibility for a child’. An example of such an issue is a dispute between the parents over their child’s schooling – the court will decide which school the child should attend.