Can you get parental rights removed?

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My daughters dad has not seen her for two years now, before that he saw her 3 times in the previous year. He has never been there for my daughter and has only caused her heart ache. He also doesn't pay child maintenance.

My mum is a massive part of my daughters life and has taken on a lot of responsibility, she looks after my daughter after school and if I ever need a babysitter my mum always helps.

I have recently started thinking what if anything happened to me who would care for my dd, in my mind it should be my mum but it concerns me that her dad has parental rights. My dd would be so upset to have to live with her dad as she barely knows him - he is like a stranger to her.

Is it possible to get his parental rights removed? I have years worth of texts proving how much he has let her down by arranging to see her and not showing up.

I feel like why should he have parental rights to a child he does not parent?

I don’t think so unless he surrenders her to allow adoption or if a court orders it.

I was worried about the same thing. My ex is incapable of providing a home for our ds so I had the solicitor put a clause in my will saying the if ex was unwilling or unable to provide home for ds in the event of my death, ds would live with my older sister.

You could check with a solicitor, maybe the law has changed since then.

You would need to go to court for a removal of parental rights and responsibilities.

No you can't

You can, through the court but you need grounds to do so. I’m not sure if abandonment counts as legal grounds but it’s worth investigating. A friend of mine had her ex partner’s PR removed as he was a danger to the children.

Kings - will that clause in your will stand you up court if anything did happen to you?

How about if he agreed to give up his parental rights? The child maintenance service have been trying to get some money from him (he has paid for about 1 year in nearly 11years of dd's life) I would be more than happy to sign a legal document to state that I don't want any maintenance money from him if he was to give up his parental rights.

I feel like abandoning your child should be good enough grounds as why should you have parental rights for a person you have never parented

The solicitor said that if I wasn’t around any more and ex wouldn’t provide a home - ie wasn’t prepared to give up international job, and be there when needed etc, then a kinship care arrangement would be sought, so I’ve created one in advance that’s all agreed.
My sis & ds love each other, she’s raised 4 of her own and is ex-head teacher of a primary now retired. And we have two other sisters for back-up. Council children’s services are stretched to the max so why would they refuse? It’s not legally binding but was the best I could do. And ds could still see his df, without my ex having to do much.

Might be worth trying to speak to your ex about it. If he's really not interested he might not be too resistant to your will

I have a clause in my will where I want Ds to go . I have a letter explaining my wishes, concerns and why

Dads like this make my blod boil. It is what enables people like my ex to completely screw people like me, and that's not ok. There are so many parents that are unreasonably denied equitable parenting because one apparently can simply choose to take the money instead.