rights for grandparents

[Charlton]

please sign this petition and pass it on to all you know

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/grandparents/

[Charlton]

fifteen views and only Paul Stevenson has signed, hope the others when they become grandparents never have any problems

[mark]

only just spotted it alan,added my name to the list... they must be quaking iun their boots now!!

[ray]

Signed it aswell

[Charlton]

thats better

[RGF]

done it Al...rgf

[seddo]

Thats me signed Up.

[codonly]

ive signed as well

[sless]

meee toooo

[Charlton]

After a couple of Q's about the petition I have permission from the originator to post an artcile he has written for a magazine which might clear these points up

A Message to Parents – The Importance of Grandparents’ Rights

After having written The Custody Minefield for parents, I was approached by a grandparent who asked ‘can you write a book for us too?’ The honest answer was ‘no’ since grandparents don’t have any rights. The more I looked into this issue the more uncomfortable I felt with our current laws. This led me to join the campaign to grant grandparents legal rights, and to start a petition the Prime Minister asking for a change to the law.

While my campaign is entitled ‘Grandparents’ Rights’, the aim is to ensure children’s welfare. In the petition, I ask for the following:

· that the Children Act allows grandparents to apply to the court for Contact or Residence Orders.

· grandparents should automatically be granted Parental Responsibility in the event of the death of the holder(s) of parental responsibility.

· that Grandparents have an automatic right to involvement in care and adoption proceedings and the automatic right to apply.

· we ask that the Adoption and Children Act 2002 be amended to include grandparents alongside parents and guardians.

If you die, unless you have named a guardian in your will, your children could be placed in care or put up for adoption. While the grandparents or the extended family’s opinions are often sought, there are occasions when they aren’t, and they don’t have a legal right to be consulted or even notified that court proceedings are taking place.

Nothing within the petition gives an automatic right for grandparents to have residence or contact, or to prevent their grandchildren (and yours!) being taken into care or adopted. These changes provide a safety net by ensuring a grandparent’s opinion will be heard in Court should you die, and ensure family involvement in decisions about the children’s future. The Courts will still consider whether their grandparents’ wishes are in the children’s best interests, and any parties who object will have the opportunity to do so.

You may be able to take some comfort if you’ve remarried or have a new partner who has lived with the children for more than three in the past five years. The law allows them to apply for residence for your children in the event of your death.

Consider though what would happen if you and your new partner were to die in an accident, and the children’s other parent either didn’t wish to, or couldn’t be involved. Further problems exist if your ex-partner is the children’s father and he doesn’t hold legal parental responsibility for the children. Without parental responsibility, his agreement to adoption isn’t necessary.

While there may be some grandparents unsuited to providing care, 60% of childcare is provided by grandparents in this country. The majority are not only capable, but deemed suitable by the children’s parents, and are already involved in the children’s care.

Even when grandparents are involved in court proceedings, they and the children can still face horrendous difficulties.

What finally galvanised me into getting involved in this campaign was a case where, after the death of the parents, Social Services took a view that until court proceedings had determined where the children should live, they should remain in care. Social Services’ reasoning was that if the grandparents failed in their attempt to gain residence, it would cause the children upheaval. The court case took 2 years, cost the grandparents £20,000, but they won. The children not only suffered bereavement, but were placed in the care of strangers while these matters were resolved. The grandparents and children suffered two years of unnecessary stress, while grieving the loss of the parents, and the legal fees impacted on the family’s long term welfare.

Perhaps Social Services’ had good intentions. The delay in considering such matters is unacceptable, as are the legal costs involved. Legal aid funding is being reduced this year, with many solicitors choosing to give up legal aid work.

Surely there isn’t an incentive for Social Services to put children up for adoption? John Hemming with cross party support from 21 other Members of Parliament believes that there is. They have signed an Early Day Motion (EDM626) which reads “This House notes that local authorities and their staff are incentivised to ensure that children are adopted; is concerned about increasing numbers of babies being taken into care, not for the safety of the infant, but because they are easy to get adopted; and calls urgently for effective scrutiny of care proceedings to stop this from happening.”

To safeguard your own children’s future, write a will today naming a guardian. For other children, please help by signing, and asking your friends and family to sign the Grandparents’ Rights Petition on the Prime Minister’s website. The web address is http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/grandparents/.

[zippie]

zippies signed