Parental responsibility is one of the most important and least understood concepts in family law, and questions about it are among the most common reasons parents contact a parental responsibility solicitor.
Parental responsibility determines who is legally entitled to make significant decisions about a child’s upbringing, and misunderstandings about who holds it, particularly among unmarried fathers and step-parents, are common. This article explains what parental responsibility is, who has it automatically, how it can be acquired, and what to do when disputes arise over how it is exercised.
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What Is Parental Responsibility?
The Children Act 1989 defines parental responsibility as all the rights, duties, powers, responsibilities, and authority which by law a parent of a child has in relation to the child and the child’s property. In practical terms, it is the legal authority to be involved in the significant decisions of a child’s life. That includes choosing and changing the child’s school, consenting to medical treatment, deciding the child’s religious upbringing, agreeing to a change of the child’s name, and consenting to the child being taken abroad.
More than two people can hold parental responsibility for the same child at once, and it is not lost through separation or divorce. It normally continues until the child reaches 18.
Who Has Parental Responsibility?
A child’s mother has parental responsibility automatically from birth. A father has it automatically if he was married to, or in a civil partnership with, the mother at the time of the birth, or if he marries her afterwards. An unmarried father acquires it if he is registered as the father on the child’s birth certificate, provided the birth was registered in England and Wales on or after 1 December 2003. Fathers named on certificates registered before that date did not acquire it through registration and may need to take one of the steps described below.
The rules extend to female same-sex couples. A mother’s wife or civil partner at the time of fertility treatment will usually be the child’s second legal parent with parental responsibility, and an unmarried female partner who is a legal parent can acquire it through joint birth registration in the same way as an unmarried father.
Step-parents, grandparents, and other carers never acquire parental responsibility automatically, however central their role in a child’s life.
How Can Parental Responsibility Be Acquired?
An unmarried father without parental responsibility has three main routes to acquiring it. He can re-register the birth jointly with the mother in certain circumstances, enter into a formal parental responsibility agreement with the mother, or apply to the court for a parental responsibility order.
An agreement must be completed on the prescribed form, signed by both parents, witnessed at a court office and registered centrally before it takes effect. Where the mother will not agree, the court will decide an application by reference to the father’s commitment to the child, the attachment between them, and his reasons for applying. Orders are granted in the majority of genuine cases.
A step-parent who is married to, or in a civil partnership with, a parent holding parental responsibility can acquire it by agreement with all existing holders or by court order. Others can acquire it indirectly. For example, a person named in a child arrangements order as someone the child lives with obtains parental responsibility for the duration of the order, a special guardianship order confers it on the guardian, and adoption transfers it entirely.
What Disputes Arise Over Parental Responsibility?
Holding parental responsibility jointly means major decisions should be made together, and disagreement can often arise when parents separate. Some of the most common reasons for disputes include:
- A proposed change of school;
- Medical treatment or vaccination;
- One parent seeking to change a child’s surname; and
- Foreign travel.
Where agreement cannot be reached, either parent can ask the court to resolve the issue through a specific issue order, or to prevent a step being taken through a prohibited steps order. The court decides these applications having regard to the child’s welfare.
How Can A Solicitor Help With Parental Responsibility Matters?
Specialist family law solicitors, like those at Johnson Astills, have extensive experience in all matters relating to parental responsibility. Our work in this area includes:
- Establishing quickly and definitively who has parental responsibility for a child;
- Preparing and registering a parental responsibility agreement;
- Preparing and conducting applications for a parental responsibility order;
- Advising step-parents and wider family members on the routes open to them;
- Preparing and conducting applications for specific issue and prohibited steps orders.
The family team at Johnson Astills deals with these matters regularly from our offices in Leicester and Loughborough, acting for mothers, fathers, step-parents, grandparents, and other family members.
If you are unsure of your legal position in relation to a child, or a decision about a child is being made without your involvement, we will advise you on exactly where you stand and your options.
Please call us free now on 0800 059 0600 or complete a Free Online Enquiry and a member of the team will get back to you soon.
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