Parental Responsibillity
Please note that the parents of any child who is born within a marriage will both have parental responsibility for a child. Parental Responsibility is the element which gives a parent the right to make decisions with regard to the welfare of a child. It is the element which gives the parent the right to make decision as to a child’s schooling, medical needs etc.
If a couple separate and divorce, each parent still retains parental responsibility.
If the parents are able to make arrangements between themselves as to the child or children, then in all probability they will continue to jointly exercise parental responsibly.
The expectation is that parental responsibility will continue to be exercised jointly. If though one parent has no interest in exercising parental responsibility (perhaps disappearing out of the lives of the family) then the remaining parent can exercise parental responsibility by him or herself.
In a situation where there are parents who both have parental responsibility and cannot agree on how that parental responsibly should be exercised, (eg whether a child should have a risky medical operation or not) then it may be necessary to make an application to the court to decide on the exercise of that parental responsibility. An application would usually be made for a “Specific Issue Order” where the court would be asked to address the specific issue of whether the medical operation should go ahead or not.
In relation to unmarried couples, a mother will automatically have parental responsibility for a child. In relation to any child born before 1 December 2003 the father will not automatically have parental responsibility. In respect of any child born after 1 December 2003 the father will automatically acquire parental responsibility provided that his name is on the birth certificate as the father of the child.
If a father does not have parental responsibility, this can be obtained by either entering into a formal written agreement with the mother using a prescribed Agreement or alternatively, an application could be made to the court for the father to be granted parental responsibility.
