Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Parent definition

What does Parent mean? In legal practice, parent describes the person(s) recognised by law as a child’s legal mother, father or second legal parent. Legal parenthood is set by legislation and case law, not by day‑to‑day care. Across England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, parentage may arise through birth, adoption, donor conception and surrogacy. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Acts 1990/2008 define who is a mother or other parent after assisted reproduction and provide for parental orders in surrogacy. In Ireland, donor‑assisted reproduction and adoption are principally governed by the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015 and the Adoption Act 2010. Being a parent...

Grandparents in children proceedings: MIAMs, CAO applications and permission, welfare tests, parental responsibility, special guardianship, and public law issues (England and Wales)

Published by a LexisNexis Family expert

Practice notes

While it is widely accepted that grandParents can have a significant presence in their grandChildren's lives, they do not enjoy an automatic entitlement to seek contact. Frequently, after a parental relationship breaks down, arrangements for time between grandparents and grandchildren are agreed informally outside proceedings, or arise within a child arrangements order (CAO) made in favour of the child's parent. Where, however, relations between a grandparent and the parent with whom the child resides have deteriorated, and the grandparent is stopped from seeing the child, they may look at applying for a CAO under section 8 of the Children Act 1989 (ChA 1989). In the majority of situations, the application would ask for a CAO that enables the grandchild to spend time with them or otherwise maintain contact. In other, less common circumstances—such as when the parents are unable to provide care—the grandparents might propose themselves as alternative carers and apply for a CAO providing for the child to live with them, or, alternatively, a special guardianship order (SGO). Such applications will arise far less often than applications solely about spending time or contact, and generally occur only in rare situations where alternative care within the wider family is considered...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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