The dangers children are in when grandparents are not recognised.

One of the cases that Mark Isherwood AM our Assembly Member for North Wales wrote about in his press release yesterday has had a development and it is that the step father involved in the assault of the two siblings has been jailed for eight and half months.
That is great news and its significance hopefully should affect the custody case that he and the mother are pursuing against the fathers.
Then we have the reality of just how does the family concerned deal with the Social Services and the judgments, decisions made by them over the many years which resulted in these children being denied the protection that they themselves asked the Social Services for.
Just how does the Social Services and Conwy Borough Council answer these charges.
I was summoned to attend a meeting with Social Services and the Legal Services Manager Ceri Williams on the 7th September 2009 regarding this case and did warn them then that maybe we would meet again in the future and discuss issues more serious then what was being discussed at present.

We did not sadly have long to wait long because on the 17th November 2009 one of these children was assaulted through the night by the step father who is now serving his sentence.
The other child had been assaulted two weeks earlier so why was there children still in this house when the police and the protection agencies knew the circumstances of this family and the allegations made to them over the past year prior to this assault.

This family has had years going through courts and just when the Private law was about to come to a final decision regarding one of these children the Social Services stepped in with an Interim Care Order under Public Law which superseded the Private Law to give them control of the children.
These are the very same people who never listened to the children before they were assaulted so one must question if they are the right people to take charge of the children now.
Let me say it another way had we as grandparents been given the responsibility for the protection and monitoring of the children and two were criminally assaulted while on our watch, the Social Services would have removed the children immediately so why then did the court give them authority over the family who were denied the right to protect their children and grandchildren in the first place.
There must be changes to how we protect our children from all the abuses that are out there, and a little girl who they say is delayed has played a bit part in bringing the need for change to the attention of the authorities.
I am indebted to you for support.

Frank Bradfield
Grandparents Apart Wales.