Parental responsibilities
Parental responsibility means having the legal rights and duties to care for and make decisions about a child’s upbringing. This includes things like:
- Providing a home
- Protecting and maintaining the child
- Choosing their education
- Agreeing to medical treatment
- Naming the child and changing their name
- Taking the child abroad
Who has parental responsibility?
Married parents
- The mother automatically has parental responsibility.
- The father also has parental responsibility if he was married to the mother at the time of the child’s birth.
Unmarried parents
- The mother automatically has parental responsibility.
- The father will have parental responsibility if:
- He was present at the birth registration and is named on the birth certificate (after 1 December 2003).
- He later marries the child’s mother.
- He enters into a Parental Responsibility Agreement with the mother.
- He obtains a court order granting parental responsibility.
