Who Can Adopt?

Adoption is a means of ensuring children who cannot be raised by their own parents are given a new family. It involves the legal shifting of parental responsibility from the birth parents to the adoptive parents. All legal ties with the birth parents are severed; the child often taking the adoptive family name Once granted, an adoption order is very rarely reversed, outside of extremely exceptional circumstances.

To adopt, you must be over 21, though there is no upper limit. Married couples, unmarried couples, couples in a civil partnership or even single persons may adopt.

Social services will work hard to find a family that reflects the child's identity where possible, but will have to weigh up suitability against delay in finding a new home for the child.

A child will be placed with a family that best suits their needs, even if that means that they are of a different ethnic group

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Are There “Grandparents’ Rights”?

Legally, grandparents have no automatic rights to see their grandchildren, much less care for them. However, it is estimated that 200,000 grandparents are left very literally holding the baby following some family catastrophe. Even in such situations, the grandparents do not automatically receive parental responsibility. Under the Children Act, however, when they have grandchildren living with them, grandparents are entitled to do "what is reasonable in all the circumstances of the case for the purpose of safeguarding and promoting the child's welfare", in a similar manner to other non-parent carers such as step-parents.This basically amounts to the right to make the day-to-day decisions which are reasonable for safeguarding the child's welfare even in the absence of parental responsibility.

It has been noted by the Grandparent's Association that, in theory, where grandparents are raising their grandchildren, they possess all the necessary day-to-day powers to make the decisions necessary in the upbringing of the child. However, they also advise that, even where there is no dispute wih the birth parents, if the grandparent is effectively bringing up the child, they should be granted parental responsibility by obtaining a residence order.

Little support is provided for grandparents looking after their grandchildren.Only foster carers are entitled to state support, whereas a grandparent may have a residence order, special guardianship order or no order at all and any allowance is entirely discretionary, with most grandparents receiving nothing.

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What Happens Should a

Partner Die Without a Will?

The rules of intestacy govern what occurs with your property if you die ‘intestate’ or without a will. These rules limit those who can inherit to spouses, those in a civil partnership and some close relatives. Similarly, if you have a will but it is not legally valid your property may become subject to the rules of intestacy.

In the absence of a will specifying the handling of your possessions, if you are married or in a civil partnership at the time of your death, you inherit under the laws of intestacy. These dictate that if your partner has surviving children, grandchildren or great-grandchildren and the estate is greater than £250,000, you will inherit:

If you are divorced or your civil partnership is dissolved under intestacy rules, you inherit nothing.

In terms of your home, this is dependent upon the ownership of the property. If you and your partner were joint tenants at the time of death, you will automatically inherit their share of the property. If you were tenants in common, you will not necessarily do so.

If you held a joint bank or building society account, you automatically inherit all of the money. Money and property owned by the deceased does not count as part of the estate when this is being valued for intestacy.

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Is it Really Worthwhile to

Have a Will Drawn Up?

Indisputably, yes. A worrying two-thirds of the adult population do not have a will in place, for any number of reasons. For those married or in civil partnerships, this is less of a problem for those who are not: bluntly, if you and your partner are not married or in a civil partnership, and you die before making a will, your partner will not automatically inherit anything.

By law, it is irrelevant how long you have been together if you are not married. ‘Common law marriage,’ whereby partners acquire the same rights as married couples over time together is, unfortunately, a myth (a very persistent myth, in that common law marriages ceased to be recognized by English and Welsh law in 1753) which is, worryingly, subscribed to by two-thirds of the population. With no legally recognised union, everything will go to your nearest blood relative.

Beyond the above, there are other grounds for the drawing up of a will:

• Your will can appoint a guardian for any children should you and anyone else with parental responsibility die, ensuring they are cared for as you would wish.
• Your will can appoint a chosen representative to take care of your affairs following your death, rather than it simply falling to your closest relative.
• Your will can outline how you wish your funeral to carried out.
• Your will can establish a tenancy whereby your loved ones will be assured of a home should you die.
• Your estate could potentially receive a compensation or death in service payout, your will can direct this to go to your partner rather than a blood relative.

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How do you Acquire

Parental Responsibility

for Step-Children?

Parental responsibility for your partner's children can only be acquired through the granting of a residence order by the court. Step parents who have married or, in the case of gay/lesbian step-parents, who have entered into a civil partnership can be granted parental responsibility through a parental responsibility agreement or by application to the court. Though adoption of step-children is possible, it is quite uncommon and an application to adopt is only granted in exceptional circumstances as it severs the legal links between the child and the absent birth parent and that parent's family.

The fact of being granted parental responsibility does not automatically mean that any step-children are legally recognized as "your" children. Should you die without a will, for instance, only your own children will inherit; if you wish your step-children to do likewise, you must specify this in a correctly drawn-up will.

The marriage counselling service Relate estimates that one in three in the UK will be involved in a step-family at some point in their lives. They recognise that "the conflicts that arise from taking on the emotional and financial responsibilities of children while having no rights over them comes up again and again in the difficulties experienced by all members of restructured families" (Stepfathers, Suzie Hayman, Relate, 2001), making the acquiring of parental responsibility a very recommended step to take.

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How Long Does Parental

Responsibility Last?

Legally, you relinquish parental responsibility at the point at which your child is recognized as an adult, when they reach eighteen; though, factually, parental responsibility diminishes as the child gets older and when the child reaches sixteen or seventeen, the parents have a much reduced say in how the child lives his/her life. If your child marries or is adopted, parental responsibility ends at that point.

In circumstances where parental responsibility has been bestowed through a residence order rather than belonging to the biological parents, it end at the point the order itself ends, usually when the child reaches sixteen, unless otherwise specified. If the father has obtained parental responsibility in this manner, however, he maintains responsibility beyond the duration of the order, lasting until the child reaches eighteen.

A father who obtained parental responsibility through marriage to the mother does not lose it should they later divorce.

A mother can only lose her parental responsibility if the child is legally adopted, it passing to the adoptive parents.

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Can Individuals other than Parents

Acquire Parental Responsibility?

Only a child's biological parents are automatically bestowed parental responsibility; and even then the father only does so if married to the mother.

Even if an individual factually cares for a child - a new partner, a grandparent, a step-parent, etc. - they have no automatic right of responsibility. There are, however, a number of ways thay can be granted it:

• Being appointed guardian should those with parental responsibility die;
• Obtaining a residence order;
• Being granted a special guardianship order by the court;
• Adopting the child.

Local authorities can be granted a care order for the child, giving them a share in parental responsibility with the parents; though such a care order, where issued in the interest of the child, actually grants responsibility to the local authority above and beyond that of the parents.

Should a residence order be in place, a grandparent can aquire parental responsibility; but, again, shared with the parents.

A special guardian can also be appointed for the child; again, this does not remove the parents' responsibility, but the special guardian does have authority to exercise that authority to the exclusion of the birth parents.

Should a child undergo adoption, parental responsibility is transferred from the biological parents to the adoptive parents; the parents' rights being extinguished in this instance.

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What is “Parental Responsibility”?

“Parental responsibility” is defined under UK law as “all the rights, duties, powers, responsibilities and authority which by law a parent of a child has in relation to the child and his property” (Children Act 1989).

It is parental responsibility which gives you the right to make important decisions about your child, such as chosing or changing their name, electing their religion, and giving consent for emergency medical treatment where needed.

A child's mother is automatically granted parental responsibility; but this is not necessarily the case with the child's father. Married fathers automatically acquire parental responsibility and this is unchanged by later divorce; unmarried fathers do not, but may obtain it: a significant factor in our current society wherein more than one in three children are born outside of wedlock.

To obtain parental responsibility, the unmarried father has a number of choices. He may:

• Marry the mother;
• Have himself registered as the father on the birth certificate;
• Enter into a parental responsibility agreement with the mother;
• Apply to the court for a parental responsibility order;
• Obtain a residence order from  the court;
• Become the child's guardian.

As of December 2003, an unmarried father obtains automatic parental responsibility if his name is registered on his child's birth certificate; and parental responsibility may be obtained by simply re-registering the birth certificate with his name entered as the father.

For registrations prior to December 2003, obtaining responsibility is a little more involved and will require either a parental responsibility agreement, giving the mother's consent, or a parental responsibility order, giving the court's consent.

A parental responsibility agreement puts unmarried parents in the same legal position as married ones. The agreement is legally binding if made out on a court form, signed and witnesssed by court staff and filed in the court. It is basically an agreement on behalf of both parents to share parental responsibility.

A parental responsibility order, however, is applied for by an unmarried father when he cannot come to an agreement with the mother. An application must be made to the family proceedings court, the county court or the High Court. The father's relationship with and his commitment to the child will be looked into by the court as part of the proceedings; such applications are rarely refused. If granted, the parental responsibility order puts the unmarried father in the same legal position as a married one in regards to responsibility for the child.

Unlike a married father, it is possible, under exceptional circumstances, for an unmarried father to have his parental responsibility taken away.

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