Parental responsibility confirms the legal rights and responsibilities a parent obtains over children. The Children Act 1989 states these are all the rights, duties, powers, responsibilities and authority which by law a parent of a child has in relation to the child and their property. The Act confirms that all the holders of parental responsibility can make the following decisions for the child such as a child’s education, change of name, medical treatment and taking a child abroad to name a few.
There are many unfortunate situations which take place where a father may want to obtain sole parental responsibility for their children. An example of this is where a mother unfortunately dies who would have automatic parental responsibility.
The courts must consider the rights of parental responsibility holders together with the welfare of the child and must strike a balance when considering such cases. This matter was considered in the case of C (A young person) (2018).
The case concerns a 16 year old girl whose mother unexpectedly died from cancer in January 2016. The child’s mother and father were both born in Nigeria but met in the United Kingdom in 2000 when their relationship began. The relationship only lasted for a period of 6 months. In 2001 the child was born and began living with her mother and moved to Nigeria without any contact with her father.
The child and her mother returned to the UK in 2012 when the child’s contact with her father began. After the mother’s death, the child lived with her aunt. In 2016 the aunt applied for a child arrangements order to be made in her favour and subsequently an interim child arrangements order was made in favour of the aunt in September 2016.
On 29 November 2016, the father was granted parental responsibility by a court order as he was not named on the birth certificate. The father sought permission to appeal the child arrangements order granted in favour of the aunt. The London Borough of Croydon filed a section 7 report, which recommended an order in favour of the father. It was agreed at a hearing that the child was to live with the aunt but to have contact with her father. A children’s guardian report recommended that there be a child arrangements order made in favour of the father with plans for a transition for the child to move from the care of her aunt to the care of her father.
The father applied for a child arrangement order in March 2018 on the basis that the child was living with him, and he would be the only person who had parental responsibility for the child. Both the child and the aunt opposed the application.
The following aspects were taken into account when considering this case:
Despite the child’s wishes of maintaining a relationship with her aunt, the father submitted that the child with the support of her aunty had made it impossible for him to exercise his parental responsibility and found it bizarre that the child wanted the aunt to have parental responsibility for her.
The judge was of the opinion that the aunt was “an emotional and psychological parent” to the child, in contrast to the father who was not meeting the child’s emotional and psychological needs, in particular he would not promote, or see in a positive light, the child’s need for a close relationship with the aunt and with her maternal family.
The judge’s assessment of the father was a man who is obsessed with his rights as a parent and not with the extremely important emotional and psychological needs of his daughter. As a result the judge ordered in the welfare best interests that she lives with her father and that the child spends time with her aunt on no less than three occasions a week. The judge made it clear that the contact with the aunt ordered is a minimum and not a maximum. The judge also granted parental responsibility to the aunt.
The judge felt this order will enable the child to live with her father and, as she wants, to build her relationship with him. This will also provide the child with the very important emotional and psychological comfort that she requires from her relationship with the aunt and with the wider maternal family who are also very important to the child and to her future welfare.
This case law outlines and re-iterates that it is the welfare and the interests of the child which are above everything when considering child arrangement orders. Despite the rights of fathers or anyone with parental responsibility the courts will always be guided by what the best outcome for the child is. The court urged parents to focus on the welfare of their children rather than on their own rights as a parent which may not always be in the best interest of the child.
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