I have campaigned for human rights for over 30 years and yet I knew nothing about the issue of grandparents being denied access to their grandchildren. A survey of 2,000 grandparents showed how one in 7 grandparents were intentionally frozen out by their own daughters or sons, or their children’s spouses.
Julia is 86, in poor health and hasn’t seen her grandchildren for 3 years. This was after a disagreement with her daughter. She’s worried she’ll never see her grandchildren again and time is not on her side.
Julia believes her grandchildren will be confused about why someone so loving towards them has been taken away from them. Grandparents like Julia have even had the police call on them and been treated like criminals for wanting to try and show their grandchildren they care and want them in their lives.
But Julia isn’t alone. 1.4 million grandparents and 2 million children in the UK are being denied their chance to enjoy this safe loving relationship. It usually happens because the relationship between the grandparents and parents has broken down for a variety of reasons– but it’s the grandchildren who suffer.
Grandparents offer a link to a child’s cultural heritage and family history, but they can also play a key safeguarding role. In Arthur’s Labingo-Hughes’ and Star Hobson’s tragic stories, it’s been reported that grandparents raised concerns, but it seems these were not taken seriously.
This is why the rules need to change:
The Children’s Act 1989 – the law which keeps children safe – makes no specific reference to grandchildren or grandparents. We want the Children’s Act to be amended so that it includes and protects the relationship between grandchildren and their grandparents, so that safe, established contact can continue even after a breakdown in family relationships.
We want a system where those with parental responsibility cannot simply remove safe and loving contact with grandchildren.
Please sign my petition to call on the Justice Minister, Dominic Raab and Prime Minister Boris Johnson to change the law to protect grandchildren and grandparents. Children should not be weaponised or deprived of a loving, safe and caring relationship with their grandparents.
