Easter is great. Lambs, eggs and chocolate. First holiday of the year – or at least it is for those of us who work. The Easter break for the children is their second break from the classroom. Two weeks – or maybe a little more this time – away from school books and lessons.
It is a chance to catch up with family members. It is also an opportunity to highlight a technicality in family law which means hundreds, maybe thousands of children across the country are left without anyone legally in charge of them during the holidays. I am talking about step-parents and it has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of their parenting. It is simply the fact that without parental responsibility, they do not have the legal right to make important decisions for their partner’s children in the event of an emergency.
Parental responsibility is defined as ‘all the rights, duties, powers, responsibilities and authority which by law a parent of a child has in relation to the child and his property”. It means a person has all the legal powers to make appropriate decisions in relation to the upbringing of a child for whom they have parental responsibility.
A mother automatically has parental responsibility for her child, as you might expect, as does a married father irrespective of whether the marriage to the mother occurred before or after the birth of their child. As from the 1st December 2003, unmarried fathers of children born after this date, provided they are named on the birth certificate of the child, also have parental responsibility. So fathers whose son or daughter was born before this date, who are not married to the child’s mother and not on the birth certificate, may not be able to make important decisions for their child if the mother is absent.
On a practical level, having parental responsibility will, amongst other things, allow a person to approve medical treatment for a child and to play an active role in a child’s education, giving access to school reports, parent evenings, and that sort of thing. In most instances this is not a huge issue, and that is why it is not something that many people are particularly aware of. But it comes to the fore at times like school holidays when a child might spend more time with the parent they do not ordinarily live with. The father may not have automatic responsibility, and if they have a new partner, they almost certainly won’t unless it is specifically applied for or there is a special agreement put in place which is registered.
Parental responsibility can be obtained (most commonly) by a father by marrying the mother of the child, entering into a voluntary Parental Responsibility Agreement with the mother or obtaining an order of the court (Parental Responsibility Order). It need not be a tricky procedure, though it can depend to some extent on the characters involved.
With Easter here, lets do what we can to make sure that parents get this message on parental responsibility.
Andrew Woolley
Family solicitor