MyHMCTS: How to apply for a family public law order
Guides for local authorities or their solicitors using MyHMCTS to make a family public law order application.
Documents
Details
Use these guides to help with a family public law application using the MyHMCTS online service. You can you this service to apply for:
- care orders and interim care orders
- supervision orders and interim supervision orders
- emergency protection orders
- other orders under Part 4 of the Children Act 1989
If you a respondent’s legal representative, read our guidance on how to respond to a family public law order application.
If you are an intermediary, you cannot access MyHMCTS. The local authority will send you any court documents directly as required.
Before you start
Before you start, you might want to read the following MyHMCTS guidance:
- how to create a MyHMCTS organisation account – for example, to create, manage, submit and pay for online cases
- how to complete administration tasks – for example, sharing a case, assigning a case and filing a notice of change or acting
Updates to this page
Last updated
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Updated the Make an additional or placement application guide to include confidential address guidance
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Added guidance explaining how to remove a Cafcass document if it was uploaded to the wrong case, or contains a confidential address.
Update history
2025-08-07 11:13
Updated the information on making an application for a Home Office order in the ‘upload other documents, orders or bundles’ guide.
2025-07-11 13:31
Updated the Make an additional or placement application guide to include confidential address guidance
2025-02-06 14:09
Added guidance explaining how to remove a Cafcass document if it was uploaded to the wrong case, or contains a confidential address.
2024-10-22 13:57
Updated several of the guides with clarifications and new functionality
2024-03-06 16:22
Added information about confidential orders to submit and serve an application, upload other documents, orders or bundles, and make an additional or placement application.
2023-12-15 08:56
Added new screens and text to upload other documents guide for case file view
2023-08-29 15:53
Added subsection in main guide about urgent out of hours applications
2023-07-28 10:21
Added new help information to the guides
2023-07-13 13:00
Added a line about adding additional court bundles to the Upload other documents, orders or bundles guide
2023-06-13 13:02
Added a line to set expectation for intermediaries
2023-05-25 13:09
Added new subsection in additional and placement applications guide for replacing or adding documents after submission
2023-04-20 11:47
New guidance and screens following updates to the service
2023-03-09 12:21
Several updates to guides to make instructions clearer and improve signposting following feedback
2022-11-18 16:31
First published.