Partner, Family Law
If you have Parental Responsibility for your child, it means that you have the legal right to make decisions about their upbringing and you have a legal responsibility to make sure that they’re properly cared for.
If you’re the mother of the child, you’ll automatically have Parental Responsibility for them. If you’re the father, you’ll usually have automatic Parental Responsibility if you’re married to the child’s mother or in a civil partnership with them, or if you’re named on the birth certificate.
Parental Responsibility can lie with just one parent, both parents, or multiple people in some cases. For example, if there are stepparents or legal guardians involved in your child’s upbringing.
If more than one person has Parental Responsibility, before any important decisions about your child’s life is made, everyone who has Parental Responsibility will need to agree on it first.
If this ends in dispute, our experienced team of Family and Child Law Solicitors can support you in Court.
We're rated‘Excellent’Having Parental Responsibility for your child is crucial if you want an equal say in how your child is brought up. It gives you legal authority to make key decisions about your child’s life.
Some of the legal responsibilities and rights you’ll have if you’ve got Parental Responsibility include:
If you don’t have Parental Responsibility for your child and you and your partner split up, then you wouldn’t have a legal leg to stand on when it comes to making decisions like these.
If you find yourself in a situation where you don’t have Parental Responsibility for your child, then contact our team of specialist Family and Child Law Solicitors.
If you don’t have Parental Responsibility for your child, but believe you should have, there are several ways you can get it:
If you’re not sure which of these options would be the easiest way to get Parental Responsibility for your child, get in touch with our team of Family and Child Law Solicitors. We can talk through your situation, give you advice on what to do, and help you through the process of getting Parental Responsibility.
In most cases, your children can be kept outside of Family Court proceedings entirely, even if you and your child’s other parent have to go to Court to sort out your family issues.
Most Child Arrangement Orders have a degree of flexibility that allows parents to agree on one off changes. If you and your child’s other parent agree to make changes to the Order informally, it wouldn’t be a breach to move away from the Order’s terms. But these changes won’t be legally binding.
When parents separate, it’s common for either parent to want to change their child’s surname. It might be following a remarriage, or because the mother is reverting to her maiden name, or maybe to make sure the child’s surname matches the surname of their half siblings.
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