Parental Responsibility Parental responsibility is defined in law as being the rights, duties, powers and responsibilities a parent has to their child and the child’s property.
Applying for Parental Responsibility:
Who has parental responsibility?
o Degree of commitment shown by the father to his child
o The birth mother
A birth father can apply to court to gain parental responsibility and they will take into account the:
o The birth father, if he was married to the mother at the time of birth, or they got married after that date.
o Degree of attachment between father and child
o The birth father if both parents jointly registered the birth in person on or after 1st December 2003
The court will then decide to accept or reject the application based on what it believes is in the child's best interest.
o The birth father if both parents jointly reregistered the birth after 1st December 2003 o The birth father if he has been granted parental responsibility through a court order or through a prescribed form of agreement under the Children Act 89 o An adult who has been granted a residence or care order by the court o The child’s legally appointed guardian or adoptive parents o The local authority if the child is in care under an order Broadly, anyone with parental responsibility has rights of access to records, rights to reports, and rights to be involved with the child’s education, together with rights for admission purposes and to make representations about exclusions. In the event of a dispute, only those with parental responsibility for the child or young person have a right to make major decisions about the child. Version 5, September 2010
o Father's reasons for applying for the order
Contact by parents without parental responsibility: A parent with parental responsibility can restrict contact with the child by another parent without parental responsibility. Any parental requests for contact should only be accommodated if they are reasonable. Collecting children from an education setting: If only one parent has parental responsibility, they can say who should pick up the child. If both parents have parental responsibility, but there is a court order prescribing who should have residence and only limited contact for the other parent, then schools should normally respect the wishes of the parent who has residence. In the event of a dispute, the parents should be asked to take the matter back to court. www.safeguardingsheffieldchildren.org.uk