When the Family Court makes any decision relating to a child, the child’s welfare must always be the court’s ‘paramount consideration’. This is known as the welfare principle. Or the paramountcy principle. It means the court needs to think what is in the child’s best interests when it makes decisions (see section 1 (1) of the Children Act 1989. This all applies where the court is deciding an application for a parental responsibility order.
To help work out what is in a child’s best interests, the court must use the welfare checklist. This is set out at section 1 (3) of the Children Act 1989. Read more about welfare checklist here.
When the Family Court is deciding whether a second female parent should have a parental responsibility order it has to presume the involvement of that parent in the child’s life is good for the child (‘will further their welfare’) unless:
- There is evidence to suggest involvement with the child would put the child at risk of suffering harm
- And this would be the case, whatever the form of the involvement.
The law about parental involvement, second female parents and parental responsibility order applications is found in the Children Act 1989 in these sections: section 1(2A), section 1(7) and section 4ZA(1)(c).