Legal Guardianship - will it affect CSA payments

The mother cannot delegate parental responsibility. The only way to get parental responsibility is if all who currently have PR agree (I assume father has PR) or it gets awarded by the courts.

She can delegate responsibility for looking after the child but the mother is still liable as the person with PR

She can name you as their guardian in her will, however anybody with PR still takes primacy over the will.

You would need to go to court to attempt to gain guardianship and will probably need deep pockets to do it. Your best hope is that the father doesn't decide to take on the children.

You could consider step parent adoption. You would need to apply via your local Children's Services (aka social services) department. Contact them for advice.

Fellsta wrote: »

Basically if something happened to my partner, neither of us want the biological father (or his family) to have anything to do with bringing up the boys. So I am trying to make sure that if the worst did happen I continue to be their parent. I have been a father for them for many years now and they love me very much. I would hate for legalities etc to force us apart.

OK, assuming that the biological father has PR it's pretty difficult to exclude him. A court has the power to remove PR but would only do so in exceptional circumstances (e.g. if he was using it to stalk and harass the family, and all other ways of stipping him had failed)

If he were to agree, and if you and the children's mother are married, then the three of you could sign a Parental Responsibility Agreement which would give you PR as well as them both having it, so you would have a legal right to be involved in decisions about the children.

Step-parent adoption is very rare these days, and would require the father to consent, and the court to be satisfied that it was in the children's interests life long.

The most practical and effective way to do it is for your partner to make a will, and to appoint you as guardian (which won't take effect while their father is alive, but is a sensible precaution in case he were to die before her) and to make, and regularly update, a letter of wishes, setting out what she feels is in the best interests of the children and why. You and she could also take out life insurance to ensure that there is a 'fighting fund' so that if you need to go to court you can.

As the children get older, their own wishes become increasingly important, and in any event, a court would make a decision based on what is in the best interests of the children at the time the application is made.

If the children don't currently have a relationship with their biological father then it is unlikely that a court would consider it in their best interest to move them from their home and the person who they have known as a father, particularly when they had just been bereaved.