What is a Parenting Order?
This was a new order as established under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998.
The Parenting Order provides parents/carers with support, guidance and training for up to 12 months, and helps parents to prevent their child from re-offending, engaging in further anti-social behaviour or to help promote school attendance.
Who can get a Parenting Order?
A Parenting Order can be made in the following circumstances against the parent/carer of any child who is brought into court for an offence:
- when a child is made the subject of an Anti-Social Behaviour Order or a Sex Offender Order
- when a parent/carer is prosecuted for their child’s poor attendance at school
- when a child is made the subject of a Child Safety Order
Any parent or carer that a young person lives with can be given a Parenting Order - so this may include a step-parent.
A parent who is not living with, but is in regular contact, may also be issued with a separate order.
What happens when a Parenting Order is made?
When a Parenting Order is made, the parent/carer should give their details and contact number to the representative of Doncaster Youth Offending Service (YOS) or Education Welfare Service (EWS) who is in court.
An officer from Doncaster YOS or EWS will make contact with the parent/carer to arrange to see them in order to explain exactly what is required of them and how that will be arranged.
The core requirements of a Parenting Order are that the parent/carer must attend either:
- a parenting skills course
or - weekly counselling or guidance sessions
This requirement lasts for three months and will involve no more than one contact a week.
The Court may add other requirements lasting for up to 12 months, which may include:
- that the parent/carer makes sure their child is at home during set hours (i.e. Curfew Order)
- that the parent/carer makes sure that their child attends school regularly and on time
How does the Court decide to make a Parenting Order?
When making an order, the Court must only consider the evidence before them at the prosecution.
In order to give the order a better chance of working, Doncaster YOS and EWS have officers who work with families to assess what effects a Parenting Order may have. The Parenting Order assessment can be used to give more information to the Court. In each case, the officer will try to make their assessment before the case goes to court.
The assessing officer will be either a worker from YOS or EWS who will consider whether the parent(s) would accept help on a voluntary basis or if they are more suited to a Parenting Order.
The officer will always try to recommend the support that is the most helpful to the parent(s) and their family so that the Court can make an informed decision.
Sometimes orders are made without prior assessment, but Doncaster YOS and EWS will still work with the parent(s) and family to assess how best to make the order work to help them.
Does the parent/carer have to be in court?
A Parenting Order can be made without the parent/carer being present in court, but it is better if they can attend because, if asked, they can express their views.
At court, legal advice about Parenting Orders and rights to appeal is available.
If the parent/carer cannot attend court, they should telephone to explain their reasons why. If the parent/carer is too ill to attend, the Court may require a doctor’s note.
What will happen if the parent/carer does not keep to the conditions of the order?
If the parent/carer does not give genuine reasons for this, they will be in breach of the order. This means the parent/carer will first be given a written warning and, if they still fail to keep to the conditions of the order, a meeting will be called to review the situation.
If, after these procedures, the parent/carer still does not comply with the order, they may be taken back to court. If this does happen, the parent/carer will be subject to further proceedings, resulting in a criminal conviction, which could be a fine of up to £1000 or an Adult Community Sentence.
