About One Parent Families Scotland#
One Parent Families Scotland (OPFS) was established in 1944 and describes itself as the leading charity working with single-parent families in Scotland. It gives advice on benefits, money and debt, child maintenance, housing, work and study, and runs face-to-face family support through local teams in Dundee, Edinburgh, Falkirk, Glasgow and Lanarkshire. It also campaigns with parents on the policies that affect them, and has a parent forum.
The helpline, web chat and questions board#
The Lone Parent Helpline page has the helpline, which is free from landlines and mobiles and does not appear on a phone bill, along with a web chat on weekdays from 9.30am to 4pm and an email address. Interpreters are available in many languages, and British Sign Language users can reach it through Contact Scotland BSL. OPFS also runs a public questions board where advisers answer within three working days; answers on sensitive subjects are sent privately instead of being published.
What it says about changing a child's surname#
OPFS has no page of its own on names. A search of its site for "surname" finds one answer on the questions board: a mother whose son was born with his father's surname on the birth certificate, and now wants hers. The adviser's reply sends readers to two places:
- Citizens Advice Scotland's guidance on changing a child's name, which explains the Scottish routes;
- the Scottish Child Law Centre, a charity whose qualified solicitors give free, confidential legal advice on children's rights and child law across Scotland, through an advice form on its website.
That is sound signposting, because a child's name in Scotland is decided under Scots law, which differs from the law in England and Wales.
How it works in Scotland#
Citizens Advice Scotland's page sets out what the OPFS answer points to. For a child born or adopted in Scotland, a "qualified applicant" can ask National Records of Scotland to record the change, on form 23 for a child under 16; the qualified applicant is the parent with parental responsibility, or both parents if both have it. If more than one person has parental responsibilities, they must all agree. Someone who wants to object may need a court order, and Citizens Advice Scotland suggests getting advice. It adds that a child's first name and surname can each be recorded as changed only once before 16.
A deed poll is the other route, and works for a child born anywhere: a parent makes it, with the agreement of each parent who has parental responsibilities. If agreement cannot be reached, the sheriff court decides. The child's own view counts too: since 21 September 2025 the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 has required a parent making a major decision to give the child the chance to express a view, whatever their age.
Children's names in Scotland: further reading#
- Changing a child's name in Scotland: NRS, the deed poll and the sheriff court.
- Does a child have to agree to their own name change?: the child's voice at each age.
- Citizens Advice Scotland: the guidance OPFS links to.
- Changing a child's surname to the mother's or the father's.
This page describes what One Parent Families Scotland publishes on its own website, read on 26 October 2026. OPFS has not reviewed it, and listing a charity here does not mean it recommends this handbook or any deed poll service.
