The duties covered by PR include:
- protecting and maintaining the child
- naming the child
- choosing the child’s school
- making sure that they go to school from age 5 to 16
- making sure that they receive medical treatment
- appointing a guardian to be responsible for the child after the parent’s death
- applying for a passport
- representing the child in any legal proceedings
- deciding where the child should live
- being involved in any care proceedings
- giving consent to an adoption order
- choosing the child’s religion.
According to the Children Act, parents lose PR when a child reaches the age of 18 or is adopted. However, as a child grows older and gains sufficient understanding, s/he will be able to make decisions about her/his own life. Therefore, parents lose PR for many areas of a child’s life before she/he reaches 18.
All mothers have PR automatically and if parents were married to each other when a child was born or marry afterwards, they share PR. This is not altered by separation or divorce, unless a court makes an order to change things.
In the past, unmarried fathers did not have automatic PR, even if they were named on the birth certificate, but could acquire it in one of the following ways:
- they could marry the mother,
- the mother could give them a Parental Responsibility Agreement (PRA), a legal document that has to be witnessed by a court official and lodged at the Principal Registry of the Family Division of the High Court
- they could apply to court for a Parental Responsibility Order (PRO) under the Children Act
- they could be appointed as guardian on the mother’s death
- a Residence Order (RO) could be made by a court to say that the child should live with them.
There was a change in the law on 1 December 2003 which altered some of the rules about fathers and PR. An unmarried father can now obtain PR by acting with the mother to have his name recorded on the child’s birth certificate. This applies both to children registered on or after 1 December 2003 and to children who had already been registered before that date without the father being named; in the latter case, the birth can be re-registered.
To take advantage of this provision, the father must either go with the mother when she registers or re-registers the birth, or he or the mother must produce one of the following: a statutory declaration of paternity and the mother’s acknowledgement of it; a PRA together with a declaration that it has not been terminated; a PRO; or certain court orders requiring the father to maintain the child or giving him parental rights and duties, or custody and control. Details of acceptable court orders are available from any registry office.
An important thing to remember is that this change in the law is not retrospective, so a father who was named on the birth certificate before 1 December 2003 has not suddenly acquired PR, although he still has the options of a PRA or a PRO as previously. In deciding whether to grant a PRO, a court will look at evidence of his commitment to the child (this would include whether he was paying child maintenance), the child’s attachment to him, and whether he had a genuine reason for applying.
Other people, such as step-parents or grand-parents, do not automatically have PR even if a child is living with them, but they can acquire it if they are appointed as guardian by a parent who has PR, in which case they would obtain PR upon the death of the mother if she has a RO or has sole PR, or otherwise upon the death of everybody with PR. The other ways in which other people may be able to obtain PR is by obtaining a RO from a court, or by adopting the child. A step-parent does not obtain PR simply by marrying a child’s parent; they would both have to adopt the child for this to happen.
Where more than one person has PR, each may act alone in most circumstances in a decision about the child, but the consent of everybody with PR is needed before a child can be taken out of the UK, even for a holiday. The exception to this is where there is a RO in place, when the person who has the RO can take the child out of the UK for up to a month without needing the permission of anyone else. The consent of everybody with PR is also needed to change a child’s name.
If a non-resident parent has PR, it does not give them the right to interfere on a daily basis with a child’s life, but they are entitled to be consulted about the big decisions and can apply to the court for a ruling if the parent with care is making decisions they are not happy with. The court will encourage the parents to come to an agreement, through mediation if necessary, but if it has to make an order, its sole concern will be the welfare of the child.
If a parent or someone else who has PR for a child dies and there is someone else who has PR, that person will automatically become responsible for the child, unless the parent who dies had a sole Residence Order. If an unmarried mother dies and the father has not obtained PR or been appointed as a guardian by the mother, he does not have an automatic right to look after the child (even if he was living with the mother) and will have to apply for a RO if he wishes to do so.
A person with PR can appoint a guardian by making a Deed of Appointment or as part of a Will. Financial help for a lone parent using a solicitor to appoint a guardian is available under the legal help scheme (commonly known as legal aid). If, following a death, there is no-one else with PR and no-one has been appointed as a guardian, the local authority must arrange for the care of any dependent children. This may be done by relatives or friends of the family who may be able to apply later to court for a RO which will automatically give them PR.
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