Parental Responsibility

Parental Responsibility (PR) means all the rights, duties, powers, responsibilities and authority that a parent of a child has in relation to the child.

If two or more people have parental responsibility for a child then they should consult with each regarding the child’s:

• Education
• Health
• Welfare
• Name change

The following people will automatically have parental responsibility for a child:

• A child’s mother
• If a child’s parents are married when he is born, both of them automatically have PR 
• If the parents are not married when the child is born, only the mother automatically has PR. The father can obtain PR if he:

a) Is registered as the child’s father on the child’s birth certificate. This only applies if the child was born after 1 December 2003.
b) Marries the mother.
c) Enters into a Parental Responibility agreement with the mother.
d) Obtains a court order giving him Parental Responsibility.
e) Is named in a child arrangements order (CAO) as a person with whom the child is to live.
f) Acquires a Special Guardianship Order for a child. Further information is available here regarding SGO’s.
g) Adopts the child.

A step-parent can obtain PR for a child if he is married to, or is the civil partner of, a parent of the child who has PR, and he does either of the following:

• Enters into a PR agreement with the parent (if only that parent has PR) or both parents (if both parents have PR)  
• Obtains a court order giving him PR. 
• A person with whom the child is to live.

A parent can apply to the Court to remove the parental responsibility of another parent. Save for when a child is adopted, the Court will only remove another parent’s responsibility in extreme and rare circumstances.