Informal Kinship Care in England: School, Medical Consent and No Legal Order
Caring for a Child Without Any Legal Order
Tens of thousands of relatives in England look after children full-time without any court order at all. Sometimes a grandchild arrives overnight because a parent has been hospitalised, arrested or simply cannot cope. There's no social worker involved, no court application filed — just a family stepping in.
This is called informal kinship care, and it's a recognised arrangement under English law. The problem comes when you try to do everyday things — register the child at a school, take them to a GP, or consent to medical treatment — and hit a wall of paperwork demands for "proof of parental responsibility."
What the Law Actually Says About Your Authority
Section 3(5) of the Children Act 1989 gives anyone who has care of a child the right to do what is "reasonable in all the circumstances" to safeguard or promote the child's welfare. This covers a wide range of everyday decisions:
- Routine GP appointments and minor medical treatment
- School attendance and signing routine consent forms
- Providing food, clothing and shelter
- Making day-to-day decisions about the child's routine
What it does not cover is major medical decisions (like surgery or immunisation programmes where a school insists on parental consent), applying for a passport, consenting to the child being known by a different name, or making decisions that fundamentally change the child's legal status.
School Enrolment Without Parental Responsibility
Schools in England cannot legally refuse to admit a child solely because the person presenting them doesn't hold parental responsibility. The duty to provide education applies to every child of compulsory school age in the local authority's area, regardless of their legal living arrangements.
In practice, what works:
- Contact the school's admissions office directly and explain the situation. Most schools deal with kinship placements regularly, especially in areas with active social services teams
- Bring proof that the child lives with you — a letter from the child's GP, a social worker's letter if one is involved, or even a utility bill showing the child's name at your address
- Ask the school to contact the local authority's admissions team if they're unsure — the authority has a duty to find a school place for every child in their area
- Local authority education duty — if the child has no school place, apply through the local authority's admissions process and ask the admissions team what evidence it needs. If none of the schools applied to offers a place, the local authority must provide a place at another school
If a school refuses to enrol the child, ask the local authority's school admissions team to explain the decision and how to secure a place. If none of the schools applied to offers a place, the local authority must provide one at another school.
Free Download
Get the England Special Guardianship Checklist
Everything in this article as a printable checklist — plus action plans and reference guides you can start using today.
GP Registration and Medical Consent
Children under 16 are usually registered by a parent or guardian. NHS England guidance says a practice should not refuse to register a child if no one with parental responsibility can do so; it should register the child and then seek advice from its safeguarding lead, health visitor or practice manager.
Bring the child's NHS number if you have it (check the parent's records, the child's red book, or call the previous GP). If you don't have it, the practice can trace it. Explain the care arrangement; the practice may ask for additional documents or details to match records or check the child's identity.
For medical consent, GPs generally accept consent from anyone who has care of the child for routine appointments and treatment. Emergency treatment can always be provided without anyone's consent under common law — no doctor will refuse to treat a child in an emergency because the grandmother at the bedside doesn't hold PR.
The difficulty arises with planned procedures, vaccinations, or mental health referrals where practices want documented parental consent. In these situations, you have two options: obtain written consent from the birth parent (even a text message or email can work for routine matters), or pursue a legal order that gives you formal authority.
When You Need to Move Beyond Informal Care
Informal kinship care works as a short-term or interim arrangement, but it has real limits:
- A birth parent can take the child back at any time — you have no legal standing to prevent it, even if you've been the child's primary carer for years
- Major decisions require parental consent — passport applications, name changes, and international travel without the consent of someone with parental responsibility
- Benefits may be harder to claim — Child Benefit may be claimed by the person responsible for a child who lives with them (only one person can receive it); you may also qualify for a Universal Credit child element if the child normally lives with you. HMRC can help resolve competing Child Benefit claims.
- No guaranteed financial support — informal carers have no entitlement to kinship allowances or foster care payments
If you've been caring for a child for several months and the arrangement looks long-term, a Special Guardianship Order gives you enhanced parental responsibility, legal security, and access to local authority support services. It doesn't sever the birth parent's legal relationship with the child, but it gives you the authority to make decisions without constantly needing their consent.
Our SGO Process Guide walks through the entire application from the initial notice letter through to the court hearing — including how to manage the transition from informal care to a formal legal arrangement.
Get Your Free England Special Guardianship Checklist
Download the England Special Guardianship Checklist — a printable guide with checklists, scripts, and action plans you can start using today.