A large cohort of gran parents in Australia are raising their gran-children, often placed in their care by the Department of Child Safety.

A letter or Safety plan from Child Safety advising a gran-parent has care and control of the child/children give no legal rights, which they don't tell you.

Navigating government departments such as NDIS, Centrelink, Medicare, Child Safety, Birth Deaths and Marriages and Hospitals to name a few with the above documents is near impossible as the gran-parent is not deemed the legal guardian.

Without a Child Safety Order or Custody orders through the Family Law Court, accessing  services through government departments is made more difficult and near impossible to already lengthy and confusing processes.

Obtaining legal guardianship is often lengthy and expensive, which most gran- parents can not afford.

I am currently caring for three of my gran-children, one with a disability and the struggle is real when dealing with government.

There are gran-parents out there struggling the same as I am and I believe it's time we all stand together to get changes happening.

I call on the government to start acknowledging the importance of gran-parents and the role they play in raising their gran-children and give them the support and recognition they need by making the necessary changes to legislation to enable them to advocate on behalf of their gran-children to access the supports and services needed without causing further stress to an already difficult situation.