Written evidence from the Grandparents'
Association (FC 55)
THE OPERATION
OF THE
FAMILY COURTS
The Grandparents' Association is a national charity
that has been in existence since 1987. It is the only organisation
that supports grandparents who have issues relating to both private
and public law and in residence and contact issues as well as
supporting those with childcare responsibilities. The organisation
is unique in providing information, support and direct services
to grandparents and other extended family members. Annually it
receives 8,000 calls to the helpline and 1 million hits on the
website. The largest number of referrals is from the Citizen's
Advice Bureau averaging some 170 per month. There is a membership
in the region of 1,000 as well as members from local authorities
and family lawyers.
The charity provides the Ask an Expert service on
the government funded BeGrand website, writes the issue based
articles and runs the community area. It is from this background
that the organisation feels able to give evidence to the Committee.
The organisation is a lead player in the Kinship Care Alliance
and founded and chairs the Alliance on Family Contact. It is also
a member of the Professional and Parenting Group Alliance and
Kids in the Middle coalition.
We have expert legal advice amongst our trustees
with a recently retired family court magistrate and a previous
Official Solicitor to advise as well as a serving manager of a
local authority children's services. The organisation also works
well with CAFACSS in areas where we have services and this has
helped the extended family in crisis.
Statistics:
There are very few statistics available but it is
estimated that 250,000 to 300,000 children are living in family
and friends (kinship care) placements with less than 7,000 being
cared for with the support of the local authority in such placements.
It is estimated that 1 million children are denied
contact with their grandparents and their wider family.
Grandparents provide up to £4 billion worth
of childcare annually.
There has developed a somewhat urban myth that grandparents
only go to court because they are unable to see their grandchildren
because of divorce or separation and that these are usually the
paternal grandparents. This is not always so and other circumstances
should be considered during any review. The Grandparents' Association
(GPA) recently commissioned Prof Bob Broad to look at the issues
facing grandparents facing a number of issues, including contact.
His report, Grandparents' Voices, showed:
— 54%
of the grandparents denied contact are maternal.
— 46%
of the grandparents denied contact are paternal.
— 39%
reported that indirect contact had also been stopped.
— 55%
reported family feud as the main reason contact had ceased.
— 17%
reported separation as the main reason that contact had ceased.
— 13%
reported divorce of birth parents as the main reason that contact
had ceased.
— 40%
quoted that they had a difficult relationship with their daughter
in law.
— 34%
quoted that the difficult relationship was with their own child.
— 16%
quoted that the difficult relationship was with their son in law.
— The
helpline has reported a significant rise in the numbers of grandparents
denied contact following the death of their own child.
The report goes on to show that preventative work,
specialist grandparent helplines and fact sheets and peer support
has been a positive way of ensuring that less than half decide
to go to court although 10% of respondents reported that they
had a court order but they were still having no contact.
The GPA also supports those grandparents going through
family courts for Residence Orders, Special Guardianship Orders,
as foster carers or because their grandchildren may be considered
for adoption outside of the family. We are a unique organisation
that supports grandparents with all issues that may end with them
appearing in a family court. The research showed:
— 63%
were caring for one grandchild.
— 28%
were caring for two grandchildren.
— 8%
were caring for three grandchildren.
The ages of the children were evenly spread from
0-15 age groups:
— 64%
are subject to Residence Orders.
— 21%
are subject to Special Guardianship Orders.
— 9%
are looked after children (in foster care).
For whatever reason they experience the family court
system, all grandparents find the situation traumatic.
The effect of CAFCASS's operations on court proceedings,
and the impact on the courts of the sponsorship of CAFCASS by
the Department of Education.
It has long been acknowledged by many of us working
with families that CAFCASS have far too many cases and that their
resources have been spread too thin. Parenting plans where the
issue of contact with the wider family is agreed may be workable
in cases of divorce and separation. We believe that CAFCASS should
retain their safeguarding role and move towards being involved
only in those cases where, in the minority of cases, there are
reports of abuse or domestic violence. The result of this should
be speedier decisions (always in the best interests of the child)
and more resources channelled in to those cases where the safety
of the child may be claimed to be at risk.
All court appearances are perceived to be adversarial
and to have the CAFCASS service placed within the MOJ would underline
this. If we are really to believe that the family court is there
to ensure that the best interests of the child are paramount then
it must remain alongside wherever the responsibility for children
and families lie—currently at the DfE. If CAFCASS is to
be seen as the voice of the child then it must not be put alongside
the judiciary who are often perceived as being in conflict with
each other because they are representing their client. To insist
that the child is the top priority they must have a service away
from this.
The impact on court proceedings and access to
justice of recent and proposed legal aid
Children must not be denied contact with or the opportunity
to live with members of their extended family because the family
do not have the means to pay. Equally, we know that there is an
extreme overspend on legal aid and many families claim that a
parent will contest every decision or defy court orders if they
are able to continually access legal aid. This process does not
help the child who sees a bad situation drawn out and families
edged out of their lives—sometimes forever.
Many of our grandparents are "capital rich but
revenue poor" having bought their home but with little disposable
income—particularly if they are raising a child because
they cannot live at home with their birth parents. A large number
of grandparents have spent in excess of £20,000 trying to
have contact with their grandchildren only for the Order to be
ignored. Proceedings have normally ceased when the grandparents
have been unable to continue to fund the applications any longer.
The role, operation and resourcing of mediation
and other methods in resolving matters before they reach court
When families cannot agree about contact with a child
there needs to be an independent body that can cut through such
issues and look at the best interests of the child without the
emotion that such disputes cause. We would support mediation here
but, because many families live far apart, this is not always
practical. Mediation services will need to develop more "arms
length" services to meet the needs of the wider family who
may live some distance away. Some thought would have to be given
as to who would attend such sessions (grandparents from both sides?
Would there be different requirements in divorce and separation
over family feuds?). The organisation has developed some methods
to try to get families to try other methods first before applying
to the court. It is essential that independent advice and support
is available. Grandparents' Association always advocates court
as the last resort to any families who look to this action immediately.
In family feud situations this is not always an action that has
a good outcome if other strategies have not been tried first.
We believe that all grandparents should prove that, with the help
and support of a truly independent organisation, they have tried
everything possible before applying to the court. It is vital,
however, that the time frame for this should be kept to a minimum
as the child will be growing up denied such contact. If deemed
to be in the best interest of the child, the grandparents should
then be means tested as to who pays for the hearing. Children
must not be denied contact with their wider family because of
the grandparent's inability to pay. We would advocate for
a befriending style support service to be developed (piloted in
a few strategic areas) where grandparents could be accompanied
to court by trained volunteers (often their peers) to present
their case and, thus, cut down on legal costs of solicitors unless
they were advised to do so.
The organisation also supports grandparents through
the courts where there are non contested residence orders by helping
them with the paperwork (DIY pack). If this could be extended
to special guardianship orders and the service properly developed
and financially supported there would be less need for local authorities
to pay for solicitors in the cases that they are supporting. This
would make a much more sensible use of public funds and would
ensure the correct support packages are in place before the case
goes to court.
Grandparents rarely feel that the system is fair
as they state that the views and wishes of the child are rarely
considered. The system fails in the diversity stakes as it has
stereotyped ideas about the age and ability of grandparents to
care for young children. Although our youngest grandparent is
28 years of age we have heard social workers oppose applications
for residence because "at 50 the grandfather is too old to
play football". Too many children are still being adopted
outside of the family because the wider family has not been considered
properly. Children living safely within the extended family, when
they are unable to live with their parents, have better outcomes
and the family saves the state up to £40,000 per annum including
child care costs but they do need proper support including financial.
The Grandparents' Association is the only organisation providing
a tailor made welfare benefits service to kinship carers throughout
the UK. In 2009-10 this very part time service brought in over
£250,000 of benefits helping children stay within the extended
family. This prevented the breakdown of the placement and a return
to court. We are a member of the HRMC Benefits and Consultation
Group. This service needs to be supported financially so that
we can keep more children out of the court system without the
family being plunged into poverty. CABs nationally are the main
referrers to this service.
More use of Family Group Conferences (we work closely
with Family Rights Group to ensure the family can take a lead
in keeping the child out of the care system). There may be an
opportunity, where a grandparent applies to the court for contact
following a family feud, where a similar FGC service is offered
so that other family members can provide a "neutral"
place for contact. This could be a better procedure than mediation
in some cases and more cost effective. We believe that this would
have a better outcome, where extended family members are concerned,
than mediation and the GPA would be willing to pilot such a service.
Greater contact rights: it should be noted that not all grandparents
are denied contact with their grandchildren because of divorce
and separation. For many this denial follows a family feud or
the death of their own child with the remaining parent denying
contact as they want to "move on" with their lives.
This cuts the child off from 50% of their heritage with no chance
at all of any reconciliation.
We also believe that:
— It
is essential that the all party promise of removing the requirement
for grandparents to apply for leave prior to an application for
contact is on the statute books as soon as possible.
— Grandparents
should have the minimum right to letter box contact unless
it is deemed unsafe or not in the child's best interests to do
so.
— Grandparents
should be able to contact independent advice and support services
before they enter the court system and, within a limited time
frame, should be advised to seek legal representation after such
attempts have been tried.
— The
organisation believes that grandparents must remain independent
during times of divorce and separation for the child's sake. Whilst
it is natural that most grandparents will support their own child
we would like to see training and support groups for those grandparents
who are trying to support the child during their parents' divorce
or separation.
— We
would like to see similar services introduced for those grandparents
whose children (usually sons) move back home as the grandparents
then become the facilitators of contact between the child and
the non resident parent. This is currently being piloted on a
small scale by our project in Leeds and has lead to continued
contact at the grandparent's home even when the non resident parent
has moved on again.
— Grandparents
who are kinship carers should have the right to automatic contact
(at least twice yearly) with any other grandchildren from the
same family who have been adopted.
— Training,
information and support is vital for all grandparents who are
denied contact. It must be acknowledged that denial of contact
is not only because of divorce and separation and all such support
services should, therefore, be separate from those who specialise
in such fields as this can exacerbate the adversarial side of
such family conflicts.
— Children
who are in care or living with their grandparents are desperate
to remain in contact (Who Cares? and Children's Voices—published
by The Grandparents' Association).
— Support
Family Group Conferences in such private law cases to enable the
family to set up their own, agreed, contact place. This would
only be used where there are only issues of family feud and not
where there are child protection issues when contact centres should
be used. Family Group Conferences should be required in cases
of kinship care and non contact.
— Grandparents
feel that any order with regard to contact is easily disregarded
and that they are not able to have such orders enforced. With
many paying tens of thousands in legal costs and appeals the grandparents
then find themselves in poverty trying to achieve, for them, what
is in the best interests of the child.
— As
stated above, we believe that many of the contact cases should
prove that they have tried alternative resolutions first (as explained
above) through an organisation such as Grandparents' Association
as we specialise in the needs of grandparents but only with the
best interests of the child at its heart. We would also like to
be able to properly roll out our DIY residence order service and
extend to special guardianship orders in cases where they are
not contested. This would cut the costs to both lawyers and local
authorities. This would have to be managed and supported but could
be run regionally thereby providing best value.
Any changes must have support mechanisms put in place.
We would experience a huge rise in the number of callers to the
helpline, requests for specialist information at the organisation
and via BeGrand together with more support groups. Information
must reach the optimum number of extended families and must be
delivered in a number of formats—not just web based. Peer
support, via the community on line or through specialist support
groups, has been shown to give a better service than legal services.
The Grandparents' Association provides support and
advice to grandparents who are raising or who have been denied
contact with their grandchildren through the provision of a helpline,
website, fact sheets, publications, support groups and community
activity on the BeGrand website. It supports at grass roots levels
and helps grandparents to make decisions as to when is the time
to go to court for their grandchildren. It introduces them to
solicitors and CAFCASS at group meetings so that they can obtain
the best possible information and support before deciding whether
to go to court would be in the best interests of the child. Any
reforms would need to ensure that such support remained otherwise
there will be a growth in the number of applications.
We believe that all professionals should receive
training in to the benefits of the extended family as too many
professionals have stereotypical and outdated ideas that need
to be challenged to ensure that decisions about the children are
taken in their best interests. Everyone who sits on fostering
and adoption panels should also be required to have training about
the importance of the extended family to children.
More information on support services, helplines etc
should be available at court. The independence of support should
not be undervalued. Many grandparents raising their grandchildren
will not go to a local authority support group (usually only set
up because of the requirements of an SGO rather than in the best
interests of the child) and financial considerations are determining
the order that the local authority is 'advising' on rather than
identifying the order that meets the child's needs. We believe
that the extended family need an advocacy service to help them
through this process.
Confidentiality and openness in family courts,
including the impact of the recent changes in the Children, Schools
and Families Act 2010
Grandparents just want to believe that any decision
that is made is fair, transparent in the making and will be adhered
to by all sides. We have not received any feedback with regard
to the recent changes so will not comment on this.
September 2010
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