Letter to Daily Post

Grandparentsapartwales.co.uk

Dear Friends and Members.

As with all things it is the biggest charity that is heard and really it isn’t good enough. I refer to the statement made by Dr Barnardos about children needing to go through the system of adoption and care quicker.
Just a wee minute I said to myself was it not so long ago the same charity was screaming for cash and could this be related.
Maybe not but they have had tremendous coverage nationally while yours truly has been gagged by the Conwy Borough Council that is if I want to talk about the circumstances regarding my grandaughter.
So I decided to write the Daily Post and I attach my letter to them.
Everybody says that children are paramount but when you read their own rhetoric are they?

If anybody reads what I write or say the children always come first and that is a long way from putting them in care.

I write a lot in Facebook supporting people who need support and we have 62 members joined our cause since April 2010 to have a Charter for Grandchildren here in Wales which would allow children in the event of a couple separating seeing both parents and having a bigger say in what happens to them no matter what the age.

I say that because I believe that babies and toddlers are extremely vulnerable and really do need protected.

I do thank you all for your support.
Take care

Grandparents have been working with Grandparents Apart Wales and the people associated with it for many years. We are campaigning for a Charter for Grandchildren here in Wales to help children keep their family connections in the event of their parents separating. We believe that children should have contact with the people they love and who love them. Just because the parents fall out of love with each other, their children will still love them both equally. In many instances had grandparents been involved and consulted at the start of every conflict where there is the involvement of Children’s Agencies, then children would have been spared both physical and emotional abuse if not worse. Grandparents both maternal and paternal would be there from the start to support the parents and children, assisting the Children’s Agencies by forging a partnership with them which could only improve the welfare and interests of children saving them from a lot of trauma and unhappiness.

Barnardos have made the news recently by bringing up the issue of care proceedings and we are happy to deal with that as it falls at the door of the Family Courts and Children’s Agencies. This news about care proceedings and the length of time it takes a court to come to a decision has been mentioned extensively in the national news in print, radio and TV but no one has put the children’s interest first as far as family relations are concerned. Grandparents were never mentioned and they are the biggest carers of children in the UK and we know that they are not consulted during care proceedings; in fact many are kept in the dark as regards what is happening to their grandchildren. There are cases where grandchildren are taken from their grandparent’s home even although they are in a stable secure and happy environment there and put into care at great expense to public purse. The question we ask is what benefits do the grandparents get for looking after a child and the answer is none in most cases, but when the same child is put into care then people and institutions must be paid and when money is drawn into the situation then other issues come into the equation. Would it not be sensible to use grandparents the same as families do that have no conflict, after all it is a proven fact that grandparents love their grandchildren and the children love them.

Frank Bradfield, Grandparents Apart Wales, 14 Amalfi Court, Craig-y-Don Parade, Llandudno LL30 1BH Telephone No. 01492 874 395 grandparentsapartwales.co.uk