Contract - legal contact and residence

[Bessandra]

Hiya
I'm doing my first ever contract with parents and am stuck on the above section on the NCMA contract.
Is the legal contact both parents, unless anyone else is involved? Previous partners, separated parents etc?
And the residence - if the child has two homes, for example?

This child, lives with both parents, who are together and are the child's parents with parental responsibility.

Many thanks for your help!

Rachel x

[rickysmiths]

Residence needs to be noted if a child for instance lives part of the time in different homes because parents are not together. You then need both the addresses the child is resident at.

Parental responsibility is for parents named on the birth cert or who were married at the time the child was born putting it simply, I think it is explained on the back of the contract, parents sign to confirm which or all that have this. It can be a grandparent or another person in some circumstances and this is why we need to know. Do not assume because parents live together they both automatically have 'Parental Responsibility' for the child you are caring for. Families are complex these days.

Legal Contact I think is determined by a Court Order and could be an absent parent or another person who has been granted this.

If you are ever in any doubt I would say phone the NCMA Legal Line for advise before you sign the Contract.

[bunyip]

I understand the definition of parental responsibility can depend on when the child was born. AFAIK, the birth certificate thing came in late 2003. (ish?)

IIRC, Sarah has one of her wonderful documents about this somewhere in the resources section.

The flip side, is to take care if a parent claims that the other parent is not allowed to see the child. If that were the case, I would demand to see the court order and possibly hold onto a photocopy before I agreed to the arrangement. Sadly some relationships end up in messy splits, and some parents are not particular about what they'll do (legally or otherwise) to ensure that "(s)he's not setting foot near my child".

There can be serious consequences if you end up refusing access to a parent who is legally entitled, just because you took the other parent's word for it. So make sure you're in no doubt and have covered your backside.

[BuggsieMoo]

Hiya
I'm doing my first ever contract with parents and am stuck on the above section on the NCMA contract.
Is the legal contact both parents, unless anyone else is involved? Previous partners, separated parents etc?
And the residence - if the child has two homes, for example?

This child, lives with both parents, who are together and are the child's parents with parental responsibility.

Many thanks for your help!

Rachel x

Residence is the childs home address - there maybe a court order in place if parents have seperated etc and this will annotate residence. If a 3rd person is named on a residency order (such as a step parent) then they also hold automatic parental responsibility if they have residence and also need to be annotated on your forms.

Know all about this as I am a step mum with full PR and residency of 3 small boys x

[Bessandra]

Thanks so much to all of you for the fab info - contract all ready to roll!

:-)