Partner, Family Law
If you’re a father without Parental Responsibility for your child, you’ll have no legal right to make the big decisions that will affect the rest of their life. Decisions like where they should live, where they should go to school, or what religion they should follow.
Parental Responsibility gives you legal authority to make decisions about your child’s upbringing, care and welfare. We’re not talking about day-to-day decisions like what they should have for tea, or whether they need a new pair of shoes or not. Parental Responsibility will give you the responsibility and rights to make decisions when it comes to things like:
We're rated‘Excellent’Parental Responsibility for your child can be given to one or more people, but it’s important to know that everyone who has Parental Responsibility for the child will need to consent to decisions about their care, welfare and upbringing before they can be made.
The mother of the child will automatically have Parental Responsibility over the child.
So will the father, but only if:
If you’re a dad that doesn’t have Parental Responsibility for your child, we recommend that you seek legal help and advice from specialist Family and Child Lawyers.
If you don’t have Parental Responsibility for your child, the right to make decisions that affect how your child is brought up won’t officially sit with you.
Of course, if you’re on good terms with your partner then you’ll no doubt make these decisions together, regardless.
But, if you were to separate, this is when it becomes tricky if you don’t have Parental Responsibility.
If you don’t have Parental Responsibility, the Courts won’t recognise you as the child’s father and you won’t have any legal right to be involved in any Court decisions about where your child lives, which school they go to, or what their surname should be, etc.
If you’re a father that isn’t married or in a civil partnership with the mother of your child, or your name isn’t on your child’s birth certificate, you can get Parental Responsibility by:
Get in touch with our team of Family and Child Law Solicitors if you don’t have Parental Responsibility for your child. We can tell you what legal options you have, and what the best course of action to take would be.
Or, if there’s a dispute about a decision affecting your child’s upbringing between you and the other people who have Parental Responsibility, we can help you resolve this in Court.
While separated parents who have children may have the same end goal of wanting to spend quality time with their children, many may clash over what specific arrangements should be put in place. That’s particularly true during the summer holidays, when children are off school for 6 weeks and both parents want to make the most of this opportunity.
Parental responsibility is the “rights, duties, powers, responsibilities and authority which by law a parent of a child has in relation to the child and his property” according to the Children Act 1989.
Child abduction is when a person removes or sends away, a child under the age of 16 years from the UK without the consent of all the people who have Parental Responsibility - those who have custody of the child or the Court’s permission to make decisions on their behalf. It is a criminal offence under the Child Abduction Act 1984.
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