Parental Responsibility Lost with Care Order

Oxfordshire County Council v S (A Child) (Care Order) (FD TLR 11 November)

By virtue of s91 (2) of the Children Act 1989 the making of an interim care order discharges any existing residence order. This provision applies equally to any custody order made by a foreign court which would be recognised in English law and treated as conferring parental responsibility on the recipient in the same way as an English residence order would have done. When S was one day old she was delivered into the care of a married couple in Brazil and her birth registered as if they had been her natural parents. The family moved to Holland where the couple divorced and a custody order made in favour of Mrs S. She subsequently came to England where she was unable to cope, and the local authority obtained an interim care order. The effect of the interim care order was that neither Mrs S, nor her former husband, had parental responsibility.