Commentary on Sections Local education authority Legal background Chapter 4: Parenting contracts and parenting orders
43.This Chapter enables local education authorities to take certain enforcement action against parents of young people who are not fulfilling their duty to participate, where this would be in the interests of ensuring that the young person participates.
44.Section 40 confers on local education authorities in England the power to enter into parenting contracts with a parent of a young person who is not fulfilling their duty to participate and where the authority considers that such a contract would be in the interests of the young person’s fulfilment of that duty.
45.A parenting contract is a voluntary agreement. Subsection (6) means that parenting contracts cannot result in certain types of legal action by either party. Those types of legal action are for breach of contract and for civil damages. A parenting contract is a document signed by the parent and on behalf of the local education authority, containing a statement by the parent agreeing to comply with the requirements in the contract, and a statement by the local education authority that it agrees to provide support to the parent for the purpose of complying with the contract’s requirements. The aim is to ensure that the young person fulfils their duty to participate. Parenting contracts under section 40 are similar to parenting contracts under the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003. If a parent does not enter into a parenting contract when it is offered, or fails to comply with one, a court must take this into account in deciding whether to make a parenting order (see section 42).
46.Section 41 enables local education authorities to apply to a magistrates’ court for a parenting order in respect of a parent of a young person who is subject to the duty to participate and is not fulfilling that duty. A parenting order requires the parent to comply with the requirements specified in the order, for a specified period not exceeding 12 months. The requirements can include a counselling or guidance programme, part of which may be residential if certain conditions are met. A parent may, under section 43, appeal to the Crown Court against a parenting order. Failure to comply with a parenting order is an offence.
47.Section 42 requires the court, in making a parenting order, to take into account any refusal by the parent to enter into a parenting contract, or any failure to comply with a parenting contract he or she has entered into. But a parenting order can be made without a parenting contract having been entered into.
48.Section 44 provides that local education authorities and responsible officers, in exercising their functions in relation to parenting contracts and parenting orders, must have regard to how a parent’s actions, or lack of, affect a young person’s duty to participate. A responsible officer in relation to a parenting order means an officer of a local education authority who is specified in the order. This section also allows regulations to make provision about the exercise by local education authorities of their functions in relation to parenting contracts and parenting orders, and to require information to be provided by one local education authority to another. The reason for this provision is that a young person who is failing to fulfil the duty may be in the area of one local education authority, but his parent may be in the area of another, and it will need to be clear which authority should lead, and to ensure that both authorities cannot take action against the same parent for the same reason at the same time.