Do I have responsibilities without having parental responsibility?

The law regards the issues of parental responsibility and maintenance as being completely separate. An unmarried father who does not have parental responsibility still has a duty towards their child to provide child support maintenance.

An unmarried father without parental responsibility will still have rights, for example:

• He has an automatic right to apply to the court for certain court orders in respect to his child;
• If the child is in local authority care, he has a right to have reasonable contact with his child.

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