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Parents in England and Wales could be ordered to take part in a range of "contact activities" including counselling and parenting classes under new measures included in the Children and Adoption Bill published last month.

The new "contact activity directions" are intended to give courts more flexible powers to facilitate contact between separated parents and their children, and can be used at any stage in proceedings prior to a final decision on contact being made.

The bill, which will help implement proposals set out in last year's parental separation green paper, will also give courts new powers to impose community-based "enforcement orders" or award financial compensation from one party to another where contact orders are breached.

Under an enforcement order, parents who breach a contact activity condition will be required to do up to 200 hours of unpaid work. Compensation payments will be ordered where one party's failure to take part in an agreed contact activity costs the other party money, for example where the cost of a holiday is lost.

However, earlier plans to electronically tag parents to monitor compliance of contact arrangements have been removed. Family policy minister Maria Eagle told the House of Commons that the Department for Education and Skills had decided the use of electronic tagging would be "disproportionate".

The use of family assistance orders, under which families experiencing difficulties after separation or divorce are provided with social work support, will also be extended by the bill. The maximum duration of FAOs will become 12 months instead of six, and their use will no longer be limited to "exceptional circumstances".

The bill will also give the education secretary the power to suspend intercountry adoptions from a country where there are concerns about its adoption practices. It will also allow the education secretary to charge a fee to adopters or prospective adopters for services provided in relation to intercountry adoptions.