What is Parental Responsibility?
Parental Responsibility means all the rights, duties, powers, responsibilities and authority that a parent of a child has in relation to the child and their property by law.
A person with parental responsibility for a child has the powers and responsibilities to care for and made decisions for the child. For example, that person can make decisions about the child’s accommodation, education and medical treatment.
Who has Parental Responsibility for a child?
The Child’s Parents
A child’s mother has parental responsibility for her child.
If the child’s parents are married or in a civil partnership with each other when the child is born, both of them automatically have parental responsibility. If the parents are not married or in a civil partnership with each other when the child is born, only the mother automatically has parental responsibility.
If the parents of the child are not married or in a civil partnership when the child is born, the father of the child can acquire parental responsibility by:
- Marrying the mother.
- Entering into a parental responsibility with the mother and filing it at court.
- Obtaining a court order giving him parental responsibility.
- Being named on a child arrangement order as a person with whom the child is to live. When a court makes such an order, it must also make a parental responsibility order.
- Being registered on the child’s birth certificate.
How do I give my child’s step-parent parental responsibility?
In the first instance it would be necessary to seek the consent of the other parent of the child who has parental responsibility.
If the other parent agrees to the step-parent having parental responsibility for the child, then the parents can enter into a Parental Responsibility Agreement with the step-parent that evidences the agreement for the step-parent to have parental responsibility for the child.
This Parental Responsibility Agreement would need to be submitted at Court to confirm that the step-parent has parental responsibility for the child.
If it was the case that the child’s other parent did not agree to giving the step-parent parental responsibility, the matter would need to be pursued at Court. This would involve making an application to the Court to request that the Court makes a parental responsibility order in favour of the step-parent.
This application would give rise to litigated proceedings and the Court would have to determine the appropriateness of the step-parent having parental responsibility for the child.
There are various factors that the Court would consider when deciding whether an individual should be granted parental responsibility for the child. Some examples are as follows:
- The commitment of the step-parent seeking parental responsibility to the child.
- The attachment between the step-parent seeking parental responsibility and the child.
- The reasons for applying for a parental responsibility order.
- The child’s welfare, whether it would be positively or adversely affected by making a parental responsibility order.
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