Do step-parents have parental responsibilities and rights?
If you are a step-parent or non-biological parent, you do not have automatic parental responsibility and rights in relation to your stepchild, whether you are married or unmarried. While you may have a strong bond with your stepchild, in the eyes of the law, you cannot make important decisions on their behalf, such as their education, care and health. However, as a step-parent, you can get parental responsibility and rights for a child by entering into a legal agreement with their parents or by seeking a court order.
How to get parental responsibilities and rights as a step-parent
As a step-parent, there are four main ways to gain parental responsibility and rights for your stepchild, whether you are married to the child’s biological parent or not:
- Step-parent parental responsibility agreement
- Legal adoption
- Becoming a child’s guardian or special guardian
- Child arrangement order
Step-parent parental responsibility agreement
A ‘step-parent parental responsibility agreement’ is a formal written document stating that the child’s biological parent agrees to give a step-parent parental responsibility for their child. Both the step-parent and the parent with parental responsibility must be married or in a civil partnership together to enter into a parental responsibility agreement. In addition, anyone else who has parental responsibility must agree to the step-parent being given parental responsibility for the child. Once the parental responsibility agreement has been drafted, it must be properly signed, witnessed, and recorded by the family court.
It is important to understand that a parental responsibility agreement does not give you more rights than the child’s parents, and nor does it give you an automatic right to see the child if you separate from their biological parent (see child arrangement orders below).
Legal Adoption
Another way to gain parental responsibility as a step-parent is legal adoption. By adopting your stepchild, all of the rights and responsibilities for that child pass to you, and you become their legal parent. The child’s other birth parent will no longer have any responsibilities or rights for the child. When considering legal adoption, it is important to bear in mind that:
- The legal relationship between the child and their other natural parent will come to an end (and their wider family) if adoption is granted.
- Adoption is permanent (i.e. it cannot normally be reversed).
- The child will typically take your surname.
To consider the adoption, your stepchild must be under the age of 18 and never have been married or in a civil partnership.
Becoming a child’s guardian or special guardian
It may be possible to become your stepchild’s guardian or special guardian as a way of gaining parental responsibility for them. Special guardianship is typically awarded when the child, for whatever reason, can no longer live with their biological parent/s. As such, it is only possible to gain legal guardianship where one or both of the natural parents are unable or unwilling to care for their child. This may happen, for example, if the child’s parent dies. By gaining special guardianship as a step-parent, you will have parental responsibility for the child until they reach the age of 18. You will then be responsible for all of their major life decisions, including education and healthcare.
While it may be possible for a step-parent to gain legal guardianship of a stepchild, this route is more common for grandparents who wish to gain parental responsibility for a grandchild.
Child arrangement order
With a child arrangement order (previously called a ‘contact order’), you, as a step-parent, can be named as someone that the child should live with or remain in contact with. As such, you will continue to have parental responsibility for the child while the child arrangement order remains in force. Anyone who has lived with the child in the last 3 years can apply for a child arrangement order, including step-parents and grandparents.
As a step-parent, you may wish to apply for a child arrangement order if you have separated from the child’s biological parent and you want to maintain ongoing contact. Alternatively, it may be the case that the child’s biological parent has passed away, and you want the child to continue living with you rather than their other parent or grandparents.
The process for applying for a child arrangement order depends on whether you are a married or unmarried step-parent. If you are a married step-parent, you can apply for a child arrangement order without permission from the court. However, if you are an unmarried step-parent, you may need to gain permission from the court before applying for a child arrangement order.
The ultimate decision of the court as to whether to include you as a step-parent in a child arrangement order will be based on the overall best interests of the child and their own preferences.
