[Solved] access to daughter WITHOUT parental responsibility

I would look at mediation as a first option to see if she will consider moving it forwards to give you contact.

If this doesn't work, then you would need to be looking at a contact order, and you can apply for a parental responsibility order at the same time to get PR.

I'll ask the CCLC if they can pop on and give some advice - I'm not sure of their hours over xmas/new year, so there may be a slight delay.

Dear Fattans,

Thank you for your message.

As you are aware, you do not have Parental Responsibility at this time for your daughter. You can acquire Parental Responsibility by a Parental Responsibility Agreement with your daughter’s mother. A Parental Responsibility Agreement is an agreement in which your child’s mother gives her consent to you having Parental Responsibility. A Parental Responsibility Agreement can be made on Form PRA 1. If the child’s mother does not wish to give her consent to such an agreement, you would need to apply to the Court for a Parental Responsibility Order under section 4 Children Act 1989. The application for Parental Responsibility would need to be made to the local Family Proceedings Court on Form C1 with the applicable fee of £200. If you are eligible for a fee exemption, you will need to fill in Form EX160A. These forms can be downloaded from www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/www.justice.gov.uk or obtained at the local Family Proceedings Court. The Court tends to grant parental responsibility unless there are exceptional circumstances (e.g. welfare concerns). By obtaining Parental Responsibility, you will have a say in the upbringing of your daughter.

Contact is not dependent on Parental Responsibility. As the child is residing with the mother currently, the mother here is deemed the Informal Resident Parent and can dictate contact. This contact should be reasonable. Contact should only be refused if there are serious welfare concerns. We would advise that you contact the mother by letter/email requesting that contact takes place. Within the letter, we would advise that you offer to go to Mediation with the child’s mother. Court is a matter of last resort and the Court will expect parents to attempt to arrange matters amicably outside of Court before resorting to the Court system. We would also advise that you keep all correspondence sent between yourself and the mother and in addition, keep all correspondence amicable and polite as it may be seen by the Court should the matter go to Court.

If the child’s mother should continue to restrict contact and refuse to correspond with you, you could apply for a Contact Order under section 8 Children Act 1989. A Contact Order is a legally binding order which will determine the amount of time that your daughter spends with you as the non-resident parent (i.e. the parent with whom the child does not live with permanently). To apply for a Contact Order, you will need to fill in a C100 form and pay the applicable fee of £200. If you are eligible for a fee exemption, you will need to fill in Form EX160A. These forms can be downloaded from the Justice website (see above).

The Court, when determining contact, will look at the welfare principle and welfare checklist. This would involve looking at the child’s physical, emotional and educational needs, the risk of harm to the child, etc. The Court will then look to the suitability of contact having looked at this criteria.

Any Contact Order made will be legally binding on the child’s mother. If your daughter’s mother did not allow the contact sessions to take place, you can apply to the Court for enforcement of the order.

We must reiterate that an application to the Court is a matter of last resort and all other options should be exhausted before applying to Court for any order.

Please do not hesitate to contact us should you require any further legal advice on our web-chat facility on www.childrenslegalcentre.com staffed Monday – Friday between the hours of 9am – 6pm

Yours sincerely,

Coram Children’s Legal Centre