Court orders which give parental responsibility to a local authority

Bear in mind that court orders concerning children are slightly different depending on which part of the U.K. they’re made in. In Scotland, parental responsibility is called parental responsibilities and parental rights and it’s also defined slightly differently.

Court orders which give a local authority parental responsibility for a child are:

Care Orders (England & Wales and Northern Ireland only)
interim Care Orders (England & Wales and Northern Ireland only)
Permanence Orders (Scotland only) — although parental responsibilities and rights will normally be limited
Placement Orders (England & Wales only)

Court orders which do not automatically give a local authority parental responsibility include:

Child Assessment Orders
Child Protection Orders (Scotland only)
Supervision Orders (England & Wales and Northern Ireland only)
Education Supervision Orders (England & Wales and Northern Ireland only)

Neither does a local authority get parental responsibility by merely looking after a child, or through its statutory duty to provide accommodation for children in certain circumstances.

Care Orders

A Care Order (in England & Wales and Northern Ireland only) — or interim Care Order — gives a local authority parental responsibility for a child for the duration of the Care Order.

This doesn’t mean that anyone else loses their parental responsibility (unless the court so orders). However, the local authority can decide the extent to which anyone else with parental responsibility may meet that parental responsibility. Changing the child’s surname, though, is an exception — everyone with parental responsibility still has to consent to it.

Permanence Orders

A Permanence Order (in Scotland only) gives a local authority some parental responsibilities and rights for the duration of the Permanence Order. When it makes the order, the court will decide to what extent the local authority will have parental responsibilities and rights, and it can also decide to —

partially or completely revoke the parental responsibilities and rights of anyone else who holds them when the order is made
partially or completely award parental responsibilities and rights to any other carer of the child

But a local authority with a Permanence Order won’t automatically have the responsibility and right to change a child’s name — it depends on the extent to which the court has granted it the necessary responsibilities and rights which allow it to take that decision.

Placement Orders

A Placement Order (in England & Wales only) gives a local authority parental responsibility for a child for the duration of the Placement Order. If and when a court makes an Adoption Order, the Placement Order will automatically come to an end.

This doesn’t mean that anyone else loses their parental responsibility (unless the court so orders or makes an Adoption Order). However, the local authority can decide the extent to which anyone else with parental responsibility may meet that parental responsibility. Changing the child’s surname, though, is an exception — everyone with parental responsibility still has to consent to it.