Please read our Data Protection Privacy Notice for more information about what we do with your data, as well as your rights and choices — including how to manage cookies. Anyone making important decisions on behalf of or in relation to a child such as where they should live or go to school must have parental responsibility.
At Lanyon Bowdler, we can help you with all matters relating to parental responsibility. Whether you are seeking to acquire this status with regard to a stepchild or another relative, or whether you are seeking to remove parental responsibility, our specialist family law solicitors have the experience and expertise to guide you through the process.
Parental responsibility is simply the legal rights, duties and obligations that parents have towards their children. Others who may have parental responsibility for a child include anyone with a Parental Responsibility Order for example:. If you are not automatically entitled to parental responsibility for a child you have several options:. As long as the agreement has the consent of everyone who already has parental responsibility, an official document will simply need to be signed by everyone at the court.
This will then be registered and become legally binding, remaining in place until the child turns To be eligible, you must be connected to the child, as the father, a stepparent or second female parent, for example.
Unless a child is adopted, parental responsibility cannot be removed from a biological mother and it is extremely rare for it to be removed from a father. The circumstances would need to be exceptional and the court will always prioritise mediation as a way of resolving any issues in the best interests of the child concerned. For the most part, decisions can be taken for a child by just one person who has parental responsibility, for example consenting to a school trip.
In terms of major decisions such as medical treatment or if one parent wants to move abroad or relocate with their child, where parents cannot agree either one of them can apply to the court for a Specific Issue Order or a Prohibited Steps Order. The court will look at the evidence and will make a decision based on the best outcome for the child. If the court believes an action taken by a parent is going to be harmful to a child, such as being removed from the other parent to live abroad, then they can issue a Prohibited Steps Order to prevent the action from being taken.
The court must be certain that making the order is better for the child than not making one at all. In all circumstances, you will first be asked to engage in mediation to see whether it is possible for all those with parental responsibility to come to an agreement, without the need for court action, which can be both stressful and costly.
We are renowned for our expertise in collaborative law and can help you with the negotiations at this stage. At Lanyon Bowdler, we are very much a family orientated team and understand the issues affecting families on a day-to-day basis. We are fully committed to achieving the very best results for you, your family and your children to bring you the stability and security that all families need. We will work tirelessly to ensure everything runs smoothly and will combine our legal expertise with our passion for helping families to achieve the right outcome as quickly as possible.
Our legal specialists help families resolve questions surrounding parental responsibility and regularly help clients to find amicable solutions away from the courts. At Lanyon Bowdler, we excel in collaborative law and will always strive to help find an agreement through discussion and dialogue with the other parties involved to bring about a swift conclusion to your case. Where this is not possible, we can provide you with the highest standard of court representation, guiding you skilfully through the legal proceedings and providing clarity on what can be a difficult and confusing process.
Our preparation for any court hearings will be exhaustive and it is our keen eye for detail which makes us so effective when it comes to getting results. We are a highly motivated team, who genuinely care and are driven by our desire to help you and your family.
We have a reputation for delivering outstanding customer services and are recommended by clients and industry representatives alike.
Lanyon Bowdler is listed in the edition of The Legal , an independent, national guide of recommended law firms and is also recognised by Chambers UK in its rankings of leading solicitors.
Fathers also have significant rights when it comes to their parental responsibilities. The success of an application to remove parental responsibility from a father will partly depend on how the father gained parental responsibility in the first place.
Other court orders, including child arrangements orders and prohibited steps orders, are more appropriate in most circumstances, rather than trying to remove parental responsibility. For advice on removing parental responsibility, or other options to protect your child, call our Family Solicitors on or contact us online and we will help you. A mother who gives birth to the child will have parental responsibility as soon as a child is born.
The father's position is not quite as simple. If the father isn't named on the birth certificate, but marries the mother at a later date, he will automatically get parental responsibility then. They can also apply for a court order that grants parental responsibility or that says the child should live with them. If parental responsibility has been granted through a court order then this parental responsibility will be in place as long as the court order is in force. This could include a Special Guardianship Order.
Step-parents, grandparents, aunts or uncles can also get parental responsibility for a child, but usually only if they are involved in caring for the child. They would have to apply to the court for an order for parental responsibility, an order for the child to live with them, or an order for Special Guardianship.
Home Media centre How to remove parental responsibility. How to remove parental responsibility 16 July Removing parental responsibility Parental responsibility will only ever be removed in very specific circumstances.
Who will automatically have parental responsibility? And if the court concludes that the parent is unlikely to exercise parental responsibility in a way that would be beneficial to the child, then clearly it would be best for the welfare of the child for parental responsibility to be terminated. The first case concerned two sisters, aged seven and two. Their father had parental responsibility for them, having been named on their birth certificates, and their mother was applying to the court for his parental responsibility to be terminated.
The facts in the case were quite shocking. In March the father stabbed the mother fifteen times, as she was walking home from school with the older child, who was five at the time.
The father was subsequently convicted of the attempted murder of the mother, for which he is serving a prison sentence, with a minimum term of thirteen and a half years. But it did not stop there, in April the father made a call to Crimestoppers stating that the mother was going to be murdered on that day.
Understanding what parental responsibility means is essential in order to know whether you should have it or if you need it and if parental responsibility can be lost. Parental Responsibility is the obligations and responsibilities a parent has for a child. If a parent has parental responsibility for their child, they will:.
In order to know if you can make an application to court for the other parent to lose their parental responsibility you first need to know who has parental responsibility and how you can get it. If you do not automatically have parental responsibility for your birth child you can get parental responsibility through:. If an unmarried father has gained parental responsibility by parental responsibility agreement or court order then an application can be made to court to remove his parental responsibility for the child.
The court will not terminate parental responsibility if:. Being an absentee or inconsistent father is not considered exceptional or extreme. A recent case resulted in a father losing his parental responsibility. The court thought continued behaviour of this nature would be damaging to the child.
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