Establishing & Removing Parental Responsibility

If you have parental responsibility for a child, then that means you have legal rights and obligations in respect of their care. In practical terms, this means that you have a say in how a child is raised and you can and should be involved (with others holding parental responsibility) in making decisions about care, education, health and so on.

How do you establish parental responsibility for a child?

Mothers will automatically have parental responsibility, and biological fathers will also have automatic parental responsibility if they are married to the mother at the time of the child’s birth, or if they are named in the birth certificate. For others, like a grandparent who plays a very active role in a child’s life, or a step-parent might need to take additional steps to acquire parental responsibility.

If you haven’t got parental responsibility but want to be legally recognised as someone who can make decisions for a child, then you have the following options to try and acquire parental responsibility:

1. Enter into a parental responsibility agreement with all other people holding parental responsibility for the child; or
2. Make an application to the court under the Children Act 1989 for a parental responsibility order. In this instance, the court will only grant someone parental responsibility if they are satisfied that it is in the child’s best interests to do so, as the child’s welfare is the paramount consideration of the family courts. When considering whether to make an order, the court will consider both the degree of attachment and commitment between the applicant and child, plus the reason(s) the application has been made; or
3. Biological fathers will also obtain parental responsibility if they are named in a child arrangements order, and any other person (non biological parent) that is named in a child arrangements order, with a “lives with order” in their favour will also obtain parental responsibility; or
4. Obtaining an adoption or a special guardianship orders; or
5. In respect of children born via fertility treatment or surrogacy, you can make an application to the court under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008.

As explained above, there are many ways in which a person can establish parental responsibility for a child, but the process can be complex. If you think that you should have parental responsibility for a child and you don’t (or you’re not sure whether you do) then it is important that you obtain legal advice to ensure that your rights and role in a child’s life are protected.

How do you remove parental responsibility for a child?

Once parental responsibility is obtained, that parental responsibility will remain until one of the circumstances apply:

• The child turns 18 years old; or
• The person with parental responsibility dies; or
• The child is adopted (an adoption order will automatically stop any parental responsibility held by any other person, including biological parents)

Other than in the above situations, it is very rare that parental responsibility is removed from parents, and the only way in which this can be removed is by a court order. The court will only make a court order removing someone from parental responsibility in respect of a child if the court is satisfied that there are grave concerns in the way that parental responsibility is executed, and if it is in the child’s best interest to remove the same.

The threshold to remove someone’s parental responsibility of a child is however extremely high, and so it is incredibly difficult. The court does however have a range of powers to make orders limiting the parental responsibility of someone (usually a parent), such as limiting contact arrangements, making a prohibited steps order in respect of certain matters, or making a specific issue order in some circumstances.

How Re J, Re M, and Re P as affected the loss or removal of Parental responsibility

The decision in Re J, Re M and Re P (Loss of Parental Responsibility) [2026], where Judge & Priestley represent the appellant in Re P, highlights an important distinction between the existence of parental responsibility and its removal. While earlier case law focused on when it might be appropriate to terminate parental responsibility once acquired, the Court of Appeal has clarified that in some cases the issue simply does not arise. Where a person is not, in law, the child’s father, parental responsibility does not exist at all. This shifts part of the analysis away from welfare and towards legal parentage, reinforcing that the acquisition of parental responsibility via birth registration depends on biological reality.

Written by Maria Conesa Gonzalez (Partner-Head of Complex Children and Cross Border Disputes) and Megan Hearsey (Trainee Solicitor)

If you would like advice on parental responsibility, child arrangements or any other aspect of family law, Judge & Priestley is here to help. Please contact us on 020 8290 0333 or email info@judge-priestley.co.uk.

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