JARVIS Family Law

Free phone 01423 858582

Unmarried Father's Rights

Contact Arrangements for unmarried father's

Following a separation, it is important that both parents work together and try to make agreed arrangements for the father to have regular and substantial contact with the children. This is what, in the past, was referred to as “access”.

It is important that the parents try to make agreed arrangements, either through discussions between themselves, negotiations through solicitors or by mediation, before making any application to the Court. Recent court rules mean that the Courts effectively insist on mediation being tried as a way to attempt to sort out contact arrangements. If an application is made to the Court without previously attempting mediation, it is likely the Judge will postpone any court proceedings and insist that the parents attend mediation before taking the court case any further.

Jarvis Family Law will advise you as to whether Family Mediation is a suitable option for you and we can help arrange Mediation for you where required.

What is contact?

Arrangements can cover a number of various different ways in which parents interact with their children. This can cover:-

• Direct face-to-face contact, including overnight stays and weekend stays
• Extended visits at school half-terms and holidays
• The ability to take the children away for a week or two weeks during the long school holiday periods
• The ability to have telephone contact and ring the children in between visits
• The ability to write letters, cards and send presents at regular intervals

Agreed arrangements can be made or court orders sought that can include a mixture of these various ways of keeping in touch with your children.

What about parental responsibility?

Parental responsibility means having the legal obligations (and rights) that most parents would expect to have in relation to their natural children. It covers having the rights (and responsibilities) to make arrangements for basic issues such as:-

• Supporting and maintaining the child financially
• Making arrangements for their education and school
• Looking after any property or assets (savings) of the children
• Arrangement for their medical and health care
• Consenting to urgent medical treatment
• Accessing confidential (medical and educational) records
• Choosing and maintaining the child’s religious upbringing

Who has parental responsibility?

The natural mother of the child will always automatically have parental responsibility. However, an unmarried father will not, depending on the age of the child. If you are the father of a child born after 1st December 2003 and you are named on the birth certificate, then you do automatically have shared parental responsibility with the mother. However, if your child was born before 1st December 2003, you do not.

If you do not automatically have parental responsibility, then it can be obtained by:-

• Agreeing with the mother and signing a written parental responsibility agreement
• Obtaining a parental responsibility order from the Courts
• Obtaining a residence order, providing that the child lives with you
• Marrying the mother

What if we cannot agree arrangements?

Even though you have shared parental responsibility with the natural mother, circumstances can still frequently arise when you are unable to agree on certain aspect of the child’s upbringing. This might typically cover making arrangements for certain medical procedures or treatments or deciding what school the child should attend.

If that occurs then the Court has the ability to make orders deciding what should happen in the form of either:-

• A “Specific Issue” order – to decide, for example, which particular school the children should attend or whether a parent be allowed to take the children to live abroad.
• A “Prohibited Steps” order – to prevent the parent taking a particular course of action. This might include putting a stop to a certain form of medical treatment or preventing the children being brought into Court with specific named individuals who might put them at risk.

Financial responsibility

Having the right to be involved in making decisions that affect our children’s upbringing comes with the responsibility to make a contribution towards their financial support and maintenance.

Again, the initial focus is on attempting to come to agreed arrangements for the amount of maintenance or child support that should be paid. However, if no agreement can be reached, then an assessment is carried out and enforced through the Child Support Agency, rather than by an application to the Court. Only the Child Support Agency has the legal ability to enforce basic child support maintenance arrangements, if the parents cannot agree.

How much will I have to pay?

Fortunately, the way in which a Child Support maintenance figure is reached is by using a fairly simple formula.

Where you have one dependent child, then maintenance is assessed as being 15% of your average net pay, after deduction of tax and national insurance contributions.

For two children, it is 20%; for three children or more, it is 25% of net pay.

If the children stay with you overnight on regular contact visits, then the amount of maintenance can be reduced. The extent of the reduction will depend upon the number of nights they stay with you over the year, taking into account extended stays at holiday times. The rate of maintenance reduction is as follows:-

• Fewer than 52 nights a year – no reduction
• 52-103 nights a year – reduce basic assessment by 1/7th
• Between 104-155 nights – 2/7th reduction
• Between 156-174 nights – 3/7th reduction
• More than 175 nights – 50% reduction

How Jarvis Family Law can help?

At Jarvis Family Law, Harrogate, we can assist you in working out what would be the proper amount of child support you need to pay for the children, avoiding lengthy disagreements with your former partner or the need for an assessment to be made to the CSA.

We can also assist you in negotiating arrangements for contact with your child, including extended holiday contact. This could be by discussion through solicitors, us helping you with the referral to mediation or making an application to the Court. We can also help by drawing up a parental responsibility agreement for signature by yourself and your former partner. Contact us for a consultation.