If you are caring for a child and do not automatically have parental rights and responsibilities, then you should seriously consider whether you should apply to be awarded parental rights and responsibilities.

We have acted for countless carers, grand-parents, uncles and aunts who have been looking after other people’s children and who have wished to obtain an official award of parental rights and responsibilities.

Who has parental rights and responsibility?

A mother automatically has parental responsibility for her child from birth.

A father usually has parental responsibility if he’s either:

• married to the child’s mother
• listed on the birth certificate (after a certain date, depending on which part of the UK the child was born in)

You can apply for parental responsibility if you don’t automatically have it.

Births registered in Scotland

A father has parental responsibility if he’s married to the mother when the child is conceived, or marries her at any point afterwards.

An unmarried father has parental responsibility if he’s named on the child’s birth certificate (from 4 May 2006).

Births registered outside the UK

If a child is born overseas and comes to live in the UK, parental responsibility depends on the UK country they’re now living in.

Same-sex parents

Civil partners

Same-sex partners will both have parental responsibility if they were civil partners at the time of the treatment, eg donor insemination or fertility treatment.

Non-civil partners

For same-sex partners who aren’t civil partners, the 2nd parent can get parental responsibility by either:

• applying for parental responsibility if a parental agreement was made
• becoming a civil partner of the other parent and making a parental responsibility agreement or jointly registering the birth