Parental Responsibility
Parental responsibility has no one meaning but it refers to the rights, duties, powers and responsibilities that most parents have in respect of their children. The following list is not exhaustive but gives a good indication of the scope of parental responsibility.
Key roles:
- Provide a home for your child
- Protect and maintain the child
- Choosing and providing for the child's education
- Agreeing to the child's medical treatment
- Naming the child
- Being responsible for the child's property
Who has Parental Responsibility?
Regardless of whether they are married all parents have a moral duty to their children, but their respective responsibilities can be different. They vary depending on your circumstances and when the child was born.
Married Parents
Where parents are married, both the mother and father each have parental responsibility for their child or children.
Couples living together / cohabiting
Mothers automatically have parental responsibility. Unmarried fathers whose children were born before 1 December 2003 do not automatically have parental responsibility.
Unmarried fathers whose children were born after 1 December 2003 will acquire parental responsibility if they are named as the father on the child's birth certificate. Otherwise they will have to either ask the mother to consent to parental responsibility or ask the court to grant it.
