With the summer holidays fast approaching, it is important to ensure you understand your rights when it comes to taking your child abroad and when making other important life decisions for your child.
It is a common misconception, that all mothers have an overriding right to make decisions about their child’s upbringing, to the exclusion of the child’s father. However, where both parents hold parental responsibility for their child, this is not true.
Equal Parental Responsibility
Parental responsibility is categorised 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'.
This is therefore a person’s right and responsibility to make decisions about all those big life decisions for their child to include consent to a child’s medical care, where they go to school, whether they are raised under a specific religion and whether they should be taken out of the country.
Where a mother and father were married or in a civil partnership at the time of the child’s birth, they equally have parental responsibility, and this is not lost if they later divorce/dissolve the civil partnership.
The Mother's Parental Responsibility & How a Father Can Acquire It
In situations where the parents are not married or in a civil partnership, the mother shall hold parental responsibility for their biological children. The father can also acquire parental responsibility in these circumstances by either marrying or entering a civil partnership with the mother after the child’s birth, by being named as their father on the child’s birth certificate or by the parent’s agreeing to make a parental responsibility agreement that has been correctly and formally executed.
If the child’s mother does not agree to the father having parental responsibility, a father can make an application to the Family Court, for a Parental Responsibility Order. The presumption the court will consider is that a child’s welfare needs are furthered by having both parents in their lives, in some capacity and therefore unless there is good reason for this presumption to be rebutted, a father should be granted the Order. A second female parent and stepparents can also obtain parental responsibility.
It is important to note that parental responsibility is not lost if the parents’ later divorce or separate. A mother’s parental responsibility is permanent and can only be revoked if their child is adopted. It is also quite rare for a father to have their parental responsibility revoked, outside of adoption, and this will only occur in those exceptional cases where the father being in the child’s life and holding parental responsibility does not further the child's welfare and subjects the child to a risk of suffering harm.
Prohibited Steps Order
Much more commonly, orders are made to restrict a parent’s ability to exercise their parental responsibility by way of a Prohibited Steps Order preventing that parent from performing an action that their parental responsibility would otherwise allow i.e. removal from the other parent’s care or to take the child abroad.
If both parents have parental responsibility and have differing views on such life decisions for their child, they must firstly try and resolve the dispute between themselves. If an agreement cannot be reached this way, parents may wish to explore assisted negotiations through a mediator or indeed solicitors, to reach an agreed outcome for the child.
If an agreement is reached this way, it can be recorded in a parenting plan or child arrangement plan, so the decision is clearly set out for future reference. If, however, an agreement is not reached, the only way to get a binding decision on the matter is to ask the Court to decide the outcome.
A parent can make an application to the Family Court where proceedings will commence and a Judge or Magistrate will consider, upon all the evidence, what decision is best in keeping with the child’s best interests.
Next Steps...
Should you wish for any further information on your parental rights, please contact Timms Solicitors on freephone 0800 011 6666 or email legal@timms-law.com.
Alternatively, visit the Family Law section of our website.
