Rethinking Parental Responsibility

Abstract

One powerful impetus for the reform was the research of Ros Pickford. She discovered that unmarried fathers who were acting as fathers on a daily basis were surprised and angry, understandably, to discover that they did not have parental responsibility. Sometimes, having parental responsibility confers certain rights etc, but those rights could be held quite apart from it. In such cases, either having parental responsibility is sufficient, or being a legal parent is sufficient; neither is necessary. Parents and non-parents with parental responsibility have the right to be kept in reasonable contact with children who are in local authority care and to be consulted by a local authority when it reviews the position of a child it is looking after. The court decided that unmarried father had the better right to bring up the child. It must follow that he possessed the necessary powers to carry that right out, whether or not he applied for parental responsibility.

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