Please keep signing this petition. It's time for government to 'walk the walk'. We are tired of the talking and raising our expectations, whilst children miss out.
Isn't over 15 years of talking enough? Or, the harrowing experiences of children sharing first hand accounts of missing grandparents as they are caught in the middle, or how about the many grandparents being called into police stations for questioning because they dared to reach out in despair, after years of not being allowed to see their grandchildren, enough to move them to action?
There are 14 million grandparents in the UK. One in every three people over the age of 50 years old is a grandparent.
The number of children being cared for by their grandparents has increased substantially from 33% to 82%. Almost two-thirds of all grandparents regularly look after their grandchildren.
Many grandparents lose contact with their grandchildren because of a disagreement with a family member and NOT a safeguarding issue.
Grandparents do not have automatic rights to access but can make court applications for contact but have to seek permission from the Court to apply.
FRANCE
The child has the right to have personal relationships with his grandparents.The provision concerns all ascendants (ancestors) of the child, so great grandparents also have a contact right with the child.
Family Justice Young People's Board members are children and young people with experience of family law proceedings devised top tips for parents to help them think from a child's perspective, for example:
"Don't make permanent decisions about my life based on how you feel at the moment. Think about how I feel now and how I might feel in the future".
It is not acceptable to for loving and safe grandparent relationships to be removed from a child's life. This is about the children not the grow ups.
Please sign my petition so that those in power sit up, take note and take action.