Having a child, parenting and adoption

Legal rights, parental rights and child maintenance

Registering a birth

• Register a birth
• Register a birth abroad
• Adding a father's name to a birth certificate

Loss of a baby

• Request a baby loss certificate
• Register a stillbirth

Adoption and surrogacy

• Child adoption
• Apply to adopt a child through your council
• Adoption records
• Surrogacy: legal rights of parents and surrogates

Fostering

• Apply to foster a child through your council
• Becoming a foster parent in England
• Help and support for foster parents in England

Parental leave and rights

• Parental rights and responsibilities
• Pregnant employees' rights
• Unpaid parental leave
• Plan your Shared Parental Leave and Pay

Special guardian and kinship carers

• Looking after someone else's child
• Become a special guardian

Child maintenance

• Child Maintenance Service
• Calculate your child maintenance
• How the Child Maintenance Service works out child maintenance
• Child maintenance if a parent lives abroad
• Unpaid child maintenance

Disabled children

• Help if you have a disabled child
• Apply for short-term care for your child

Child protection and safety

• Find help to get your child back from abroad or arrange contact
• If your child is taken into care
• Get a police check on someone that has contact with a child
• Alcohol and young people
• The law on leaving your child on their own
• Child employment

Financial support for parents

• Sure Start Maternity Grant
• Parents' Learning Allowance

Children's savings

• Child Trust Fund
• Junior Individual Savings Accounts (ISA)
• Interest on savings for children