[Solved] parental responsibility

Hi there

Unfortunately without a court order your ex can do pretty much as she likes as far as withholding contact.

Parental responsibility carries certain rights, such as important decisions on education, health and religion being discussed by both parents and agreement sought...all well and good but if the resident parent decides not to do this there isn't much the other parent can do except apply to court and by the time this pans out the child is already settled in another school etc.

As far as re establishing contact, your first step would be to attend mediation, this is compulsory before you can apply to court. Here's a link to the mediation services

www.nfm.org.uk

If this fails or she refuses to attend the mediator will sign off the C100 form to enable you to apply to court for a Child Arrangements Order for contact. Here's a useful link that explains the whole process in more depth.

https://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/family-justice-reform/pd-12b-cap.pdf

As far as taking your child abroad, she needs your permission to do so. Strictly speaking, without your written permission to take the child out of the country, she can be prevented from leaving. Customs don't often check to see if a parent travelling alone with a child has written permission, especially if they have the same surname. If you wanted to prevent this you would need to contact the immigration/passport authorities. However very few parents would want to stop their child from having a holiday, but if the fear is that they wouldn't return then it will stop this happening. Here's a link to explain your rights

https://www.gov.uk/permission-take-child-abroad

Best of luck

hi

regards the taking abroad issue, im going through a contact order and applied for a prohibited steps order as part of the c100 application,.this is used to restrict a parent doing something like taking a child abroad or applying for travel documents without the permission of the court or notifying the other parent/getting their consent...depending on what the judge orders. It maybe worth you looking into this aswell

however if you dont have this, then you can try writing a letter to the passport office explaining that you are the father, and that you are worried your partner may take the child out of the uk without your consent., it maybe good to include your passport number NI for identification purposes .
I did this and attached a copy of my prohibited steps order and received a reply from the passport office notifying me they had put a marker against my sons name so that when my ex applies for travel documents for him then these wouldnt be issued without consent.

Quick correction - they are now Child Arrangement Orders now, not contact orders - that reflects the terminology of the 2015 change. Worth checking the letter from the passport office carefully - I seem to recall that the note only lasts a year, unless it's been changed since I did it.

yes thats correct, the letter from the passport office states that the note will be on there for a year and if i want it to remain on there then i will have to write to them again. so nearer the time i will write to them again explain that there isnt been a change in circumstances and my fears are still real and present and they should continue to the note on system