What is a parental responsibility agreement?

Note that a parental responsibility agreement is slightly different depending on which part of the U.K. it’s made in. In Scotland it’s called a parental responsibilities and parental rights agreement.

There are two types of parental responsibility agreement:

With the father or “second female parent”

A child’s father (or second female parent) can get parental responsibility by making a parental responsibility agreement with the mother.

For the agreement to be valid, it must be signed by both parents and witnessed at court, and then recorded at the central court which maintains a registry of these agreements — if your child lives in England or Wales it should be recorded in the Principal Registry of the Family Division of the High Court (in London).

A second female parent can only do this if she has already made a formal agreement with the mother — before the mother got pregnant with the child — to act as the second female parent.

Once the father (or second female parent) gets parental responsibility in this way, they cannot lose it unless it is taken away by the court.

With a step-parent (England & Wales only)

Since 30^th December 2005 (in England and Wales only), step-parents have also been able to get parental responsibility through a parental responsibility agreement. This sort of parental responsibility agreement is the same as that for fathers, except that it has to be signed by the step-parent and everyone with parental responsibility — i.e. the mother plus the child’s other parent (if they also have parental responsibility).

A step-father can make a parental responsibility agreement if he is:

married to the mother
married to the father, and the father has parental responsibility
in a civil partnership with the father, and the father has parental responsibility

A step-mother can make a parental responsibility agreement if she is:

married to the father, and the father has parental responsibility
married to the mother
in a civil partnership with the mother

As with anyone else who has parental responsibility, once a step-parent gets parental responsibility in this way, they cannot lose it unless it is taken away by the court.