Family Department Fact Sheet
Parental Responsibility
This document provides general guidance regarding parental responsibility for a child. Your family lawyer will be able to provide specific advice based on your circumstances.
Parental responsibility enables a person to be involved in making decisions about a child’s upbringing. e.g., where the child should live, what he or she should be called, the child’s education and religion and decisions regarding the child’s health. It continues until a child is 18, although children can make more decisions for themselves as they get older.
Parents keep their parental responsibility if they separate, even if they do not live with the child. A parent will only lose parental responsibility if the child is adopted by someone else or an order is made by Court which only happens in the most extreme circumstances when the child’s welfare demands this to ensure their safety. The law encourages parents who do not live with their children to remain in touch and be involved in the child’s life.
A child’s mother automatically has parental responsibility, and she does not lose it if she and the child’s father separate, whether or not they were married.
Both parents have equal parental responsibility if they were married to each other when their child was born or marry each other later.
If the parents are not married, and the child was born after 1st December 2003, the unmarried father will have parental responsibility if he was present when the birth was registered and is named upon the birth certificate.
If the father does not have parental responsibility, parents can agree that the father should also have parental responsibility and both can complete a parental responsibility agreement. If the mother will not agree, the father can ask the Court to let him share parental responsibility with her.
People who are not parents, like step-parents, grandparents or other relatives, do not have parental responsibility even though a child is living with them. Such people can get parental responsibility in three ways:
- They can be made guardian by a parent who has parental responsibility (see below).
- They can do so under a Child Arrangement Order from Court.
- They can adopt the child.
A step-parent does not get parental responsibility just by marrying the child’s parent but can enter into a step-parent parental responsibility agreement as long as all those with parental responsibility agree.
Certain court orders can confer parental responsibility for a child. A person obtaining parental responsibility through a court order does not have to be a parent of the child. Their parental responsibility will generally only last while the order conferring it remains effective.
For same-sex couples, the situation is more complicated, depending on how the child was conceived and in what family circumstances. If this is relevant, please ask your family lawyer to assist you.
A successful application to court for a special guardianship order or a parental order after surrogacy will also automatically grant parental responsibility. Parental responsibility may also be granted when the court makes a child arrangements order
More than one person may have parental responsibility for the same child at the same time.
Parents can appoint guardians to care for children if the parent dies. This does not need to be done by Will but must be in writing and be signed and dated.
A guardian will only have parental responsibility if all parents with parental responsibility are dead. If one parent with parental responsibility survives, the guardian cannot act. The only exception is where the dead parent had a Child Arrangement Order in his or her favour. In that case, the surviving parent with parental responsibility will share it with the guardian. If a parent does not appoint a guardian before death, the Court may appoint one if needed.
Note: The above is intended as a general overview for your information. It is NOT intended to replace proper legal advice. Each case is different, and advice cannot be given without a proper analysis of your own circumstances. (May 2023)
