About Parental Responsibility

What Is Parental Responsibility?

Parental responsibility is defined in section 3(1) Children Act 1989 as being:

"all the rights, duties, powers, responsibilities and authority which by law a parent of a child has in relation to the child and his property".

The term parental responsibility attempts to focus on the parent’s duties towards their child rather than the parent’s rights over their child.

 

But What Does This Mean In Practical Terms?

When a decision has to be taken about a child, all those with parental responsibility for the child are allowed to have a say in that decision. The decision will have to be about the upbringing of the child. Day to day decisions should be taken by the resident parent or the person with whom the child lives without interference from other parental responsibility holders.

In practical terms parental responsibility means the power to make important decisions in relation to a child - for example, decisions about where a child is to live, whether a child should receive medical treatment, what religion the child should follow and which school they should attend

 

Who Has Parental Responsibility?

• Mothers - Automatically Have Parental Responsibility and will not lose it after a divorce

• Fathers - Gain Parental Responsibility upon Marriage to the Mother of the child and will not loose it if divorced

• unmarried fathers do not have automatic parental responsibility.

 

Changes In The Law

The law has changed so that unmarried fathers who registered or re-registered their name on their child’s birth certificate AFTER 1^st December 2003 will have parental responsibility for their child.

Therefore:

• If an unmarried father has a child after 1^st December 2003 and he is registered on the birth certificate he WILL have parental responsibility.

• If a child was registered before 1^st December 2003 and the father was not named on the birth certificate, then the child can be re-registered to include the father’s name. Once this has been done, the father WILL have parental responsibility.

• If an unmarried father’s name is already on the birth certificate and the child was registered before 1^st December 2003, the law has not changed this situation so the father WILL NOT have parental responsibility. (Unless obtained by other means.)

 

 

If you have any further question or concerns please contact us

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