Published at 11:52, Tuesday, 10 June 2008

Ask younger people to describe a typical grandparent and many may envisage an old gent with a pipe, slippers and a cardigan, or an old lady with a blue rinse and knitting.Fifty MPs, from six different parties, are backing Mr Robinson’s campaign. Their early day motion before the House of Commons, states: “This House believes that a child’s right to family life requires greater legislative protection... there should be an expectation that ancestors and close biological relatives become parties to family court on request.

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They may indulge their grandchildren with sweets but will be too old, tired and frail to look after them long-term.

This is the mental picture which a campaigner from Cumbria is trying to eradicate. For he says it is damaging the welfare of vulnerable children and their grandparents as well.

Family law adviser Michael Robinson is behind a campaign for grandparents to be given greater rights against what he sees as age discrimination.

He wants them to be automatically considered as potential guardians of their grandchildren if the children’s parents die, fall ill or cannot cope for any other reason.

At the moment grandparents have no automatic rights to be considered as guardians – so many youngsters end up living with foster or adoptive parents, when they could have remained within their own families by living with Grandma and Granddad instead.

In some instances, Grandma and Granddad lose contact with their grandchildren altogether.

Mr Robinson, from Brampton, says it is usually in the best interests of children to be cared for by members of their extended family rather than by strangers.

And he now wants to see the law changed so that grandparents are automatically considered when child custody is being decided.

His campaign has the backing of several parents’ and grandparents’ charities and 50 MPs, including Carlisle MP Eric Martlew.

The MPs have now put down an early day motion in the House of Commons to bring the issue to the attention of parliament.

As the law stands at the moment, a court can rule on child custody without even telling the grandparents that court proceedings are taking place.

Grandparents can be left out of the equation altogether – so Mr Robinson says the ideal, most experienced people to care for the children quite often get overlooked.

“If grandparents don’t even know that court proceedings are taking place and they aren’t involved, then the court won’t know that there are family members available to look after the children,” he said.

“The most trusted people within the population to provide child care are grandparents. But a grandparent has got no automatic rights. To me that just doesn’t make sense.

“We’ve got all this talk about a shortage of foster places. So I can’t see any logic in grandparents not being automatically considered.”

Mr Robinson said all the usual checks would have to be carried out to ensure the grandparents were safe people to look after children. And he added that children should not be handed over to grandparents if the parents object.

But he said: “All we are asking for is that they get the right to be considered.”

Some of those who disagree with Mr Robinson argue that grandparents may lack the energy needed to cope with young children, or may be too old for the stresses involved.

Eighteen months ago Harriet Harman, then a minister of state at the Department of Justice, said: “I’ll be 74 when I get to be a granny. The growing gap between generations means grandparents who are less helpful, more dependent.”

But Mr Robinson said: “One of the problems we have is this misconception about age. Grandparents are not all wrinkly old people.

“The average age to become a grandparent for the first time is now 49. So when a grandchild reaches 16 the grandparents could still be working.

“We are all far older, and staying fit for far longer than we’ve ever done in the past.”

Besides grandparents by definition have previous experience of looking after children, having once been parents themselves.

They already carry out 60 per cent of all the child care in the country, saving the economy £4 billion every year.

And Mr Robinson said that in some cases the grandparents may only need to take over child care temporarily.

“If you had a parent with a mental illness like post-natal depression, say, and the children get taken into care, then there’s a chance that that biological family will be split up forever,” he said.

“But if the grandparents looked after the children while Mum got treated, then the chances are that you’ll keep that family together in the end.

“The child has a right to family life. But at the moment that isn’t being upheld.”

“Biological relatives including grandparents, aunts and uncles should be automatically notified of care and adoption proceedings.”

Early day motions rarely win enough time to be debated in parliament, but are seen as a useful way of highlighting an issue.

Carlisle MP Eric Martlew, who has put his name to the motion, said the number of signatures, from across political parties, showed that the issue was well supported.

Mr Martlew said: “At the moment grandparents have no rights. I have dealt with many cases over the years where they have had contact with grandchildren broken off after a marriage breakdown, and it is as traumatic for the grandchildren as it is for the grandparents.”

But he said grandparents often notice their lack of rights when parents have to give up caring for their children, and the family courts decide the children’s fate.

“Children can be taken into care or put into fostering and no-one is told about it,” he said.

“Traditionally the people who would have looked after children in these situations would have been grandparents, and it seems logical for them to be involved and consulted.

“At the end of the day it is for the court to decide what is in the best interests of children.

“But sometimes we are too bureaucratic and forget the obvious option.”

Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk