Parental 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. Parents both keep parental responsibility if they later divorce.
• listed on the birth certificate

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

All parents with parental responsibility are entitled to receive information regarding their child’s education and the school is required to provide this information to the parent.  In order to prevent a parent from receiving this information, it is the responsibility of the other parent to provide documentary evidence (such as a court order) to prove that the other parent no longer has parental responsibility. Without this evidence, the school cannot withhold information regarding a child’s education from a parent.