We often get questions from step-mothers and step-fathers regarding their rights to step children.
In this article, Family Associate Amy Langlois answers some of these questions and discusses step-parent’s parental responsibility.
What rights do step-parents have?
Some of the most common questions we get from step-parents, are queries around their rights to make decisions on a child’s education, medical care and living arrangements.
All three of these decisions can be made by people with parental responsibility to the child.
What is parental responsibility?
Parental responsibility is defined in section 3 of the Children Act 1989 as being all the “rights, duties, powers, responsibilities and authority which by law, a parent of a child has in relation to the child and his property”.
Examples of exercising parental responsibility include (but are not limited to):
- Consenting to or obtaining appropriate medical care for the child;
- Naming the child;
- Ensuring that the child receives the appropriate education for their age; and
- Where the child should live.
Does a step-parent have parental responsibility?
A step-parent does not automatically have parental responsibility. But there are ways for step-parents to attain parental responsibility, which we outline later in this article.
Do married step-parents have parental responsibility?
Contrary to popular belief, married step-parents do not automatically have parental responsibility.
As a step-parent, you won’t gain parental responsibility simply by marrying the parent with parental responsibility.
However, and again, there are ways for step-parents to gain responsibility…
How to get parental responsibility
There are a number of ways in which a step-parent can obtain parental responsibility for their step-child. These are set out in the full article, which can be read here.