Parental Responsibility And Birth Certificates

[Buttercup]

Please can you kind people help we are not getting much guidance from early years staff as to how.

 

We are being told we must see a child's birth certificates to confirm who has parental responsibility.

 

my question is How do you insist on this? at birth parents are given a short BC so some may not have a full BC

 

What do you write on their registration forms explaining this?

 

hope you can help

 

Buttercup

[Guest]

Getting a copy of the childs birth certificate is part of our registration process as we will eventually need it for the funded hours anyway. We have always seen the full one and for those parents who can't find or get one, I will order one and invoice them for it.

[Cait]

We always have to see them too, for the entitlement. I'm thinking of making it part of the general registration process too, so that it's done!

 

There's nowhere on the certificate where it mentions parental responsibility though, is there?

[Guest]

I get parents to fill out a parental repsonsibility form on induction as well and then just check the details on the BC, i.e. is dad on it or not and then ask for clarification if needed

[Rea]

We've recently been told to see the BC in order to have the correct name instead of any nick name the child might have, this is so the EY funding people can check the child against the names they get from the NHS birth register for our area, the name we are given by the parents might not be the name they were registered with.

Parental responsibility discussion with handy forms and info http://eyfs.info/for...showtopic=27248

Edited May 5, 2012 by Rea

[Allard28]

We also request copies of birth certificates as part of the registration process and find that parents always find the certificate and produce it when we say we are unable to claim the 15 hours funding unless we have seen it!!! (it is a requirement of the funding to substantiate the date of birth).

 

We also had a situation recently where a couple split and the father was demanding to see developmental progress of his child and newsletters etc but the mother was against this request and asked us to withhold information. Because we had the copy of birth certificate it was easy to make a decision about what to do because any child born after 2003 who has both parents named on the birth certificate, whether married or not, both have equal parental responsibility by law and are both entitled to information about their child whether the other parent agrees or not.

 

Hope this helps.

[Fredbear]

Already part of our registration and induction pack, so it's all ready when funding forms are completed, saves lots of time to do it this way.

[Cait]

 

We also had a situation recently where a couple split and the father was demanding to see developmental progress of his child and newsletters etc but the mother was against this request and asked us to withhold information. Because we had the copy of birth certificate it was easy to make a decision about what to do because any child born after 2003 who has both parents named on the birth certificate, whether married or not, both have equal parental responsibility by law and are both entitled to information about their child whether the other parent agrees or not.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Do you actually copy the certificates? We just note the number and check the information

[Guest]

We photocopy the certificate at registration, so we have the evidence about responsibility if the need arises, and, as above, we then have them ready for when they claim EYE. There is also a question on the registration form about who has parental responsibility, and the parent has to sign this form. If they only have the short birth certificate, we then feel we at least have the registration form information - if it came out that the parent had given wrong information then at least we can show we tried. I am not sure if we are right, but I don't personally see what else we can do.

[Cait]

We were told we're not allowed to keep photocopies any more, and we shredded all the ones we had, or gave them to the parents. No we just have to record that we've seen them, and I do this by recording the number. It would be nice to have the evidence to hand sometimes!

[Fredbear]

I was led to believe like the CRB's you are not to keep them or copy but take the details you require from them.

[Rafa]

I was led to believe like the CRB's you are not to keep them or copy but take the details you require from them.

 

Crikey, wish we were all told the same! At our last funding audit was not told this?! Do likewise with CRB's but have LOADS of birth certs in my possesh!!! Feeling like Im commiting a crime.!!!!!!!

Edited May 5, 2012 by Rafa

[anju]

I've just had an audit re EYFE and was asked to show copies of birth certificates

[westie]

Interestingly at safeguarding training yesterday the issue of proving parental responsibility came up. One of the practitioners asked the trainer and the head of early years who was sitting in on the training whether it was necessary to get copies of birth certificates to prove pr. the answer was categorically no! They said that we had to trust the information provided ( and signed to say info is correct) on the reg form. They said it was not our job to be detectives and find out this information as it should have been provided on reg form.

they also talked about the issue of how we would then store all of the bc's.

 

 

I guess it's different if you need birth certificates for Funding purposes. But interesting how many of us have been told different things!

Edited May 6, 2012 by westie

[finleysmaid]

we are also told that we can accept passports (as you need birth certificate to get it)

as regards to Data we have always been told not to keep copies (even though schools do)

parental responsibility is discussed on our registration forms and we ask for evidence of courts orders if those are in place.

[Cait]

Yes we can do birth certificates, passports and child benefit books or paperwork. Just note numbers though

[Guest]

Just to add, we note the number on CRBs but my manager is now saying that new rules mean we have to have a copy of it...anyone heard this?

[Cait]

Quite the opposite. The crb is the property of the person. It may be possible to get a letter from the checking body to say that the person is suitable, we used to get these, but don't seem to any more.

[Guest]

It is interesting that we seems all to have been given different information re copying birth certificates. I know copies of CRBs are a no, no, but perhaps copying of birth certificates is simply down to opinion within LAs. Some seem to give more directives than others. We had copies in the children's folders when Mrs O came visiting and she said nothing.

[Rea]

From a parent point of view I wouldnt want anyone having a copy of my children's BC for any reason.

It can be used for all sorts of reasons and I think we should start the identity protection thing when we can.

[Cait]

I agree Rea, I find it rather worrying that you can just apply for one of someone else's, just for a fiver I was told

[Buttercup]

thank you so much for your responses this really is a tricky one. Our LA dont need BC for funding but the issue has come up regarding perental responsibility. Really wish there could be a set form that we all use so we are all doing the same instead of being told different things all the time.

 

many thanks

 

buttercup

[Rea]

I've just found the notes I took at the funding meeting, it says we are to take copies of the birth certificate. The manager says she already does after I told her we should but I'll be checking with the EY dept because it doesnt seem right to me.

[Guest]

From a parent point of view I wouldnt want anyone having a copy of my children's BC for any reason.

It can be used for all sorts of reasons and I think we should start the identity protection thing when we can.

We have to send copies of BC to access funding for 2 and 3 year olds