Should grandparents win visiting rights?
Campaigners clamour for new law — but ministers fear it could backfire
‘Horrendous stories’
GIVING grandparents an automatic right to see their grandchildren may have damaging results for some young children, ministers have warned.
They say changes to ease the agony of grandparents frozen out after a family breakup could have ‘unintended consequences’.
in particular, ministers are anxious to avoid any new law that would allow grandparents to use children as weapons on the side of one parent in a difficult divorce.
The warnings about any new ‘grandparents law’ follows pressure from MPs to amend the Children Act 1989, with ministers promising to ‘look at’ changes that would prioritise grandparents’ rights in the courts.
Groups representing grandparents want to see automatic access to grandchildren after children’s parents split, and an end to legal safeguards that they believe unfairly restrict the rights of grandparents. Similiar rights are also being sought for aunts and uncles.
However, children’s minister nadhim Zahawi said yesterday that the Government would be guided by the principle that the wellbeing of the child comes first, adding that ‘if it is in the child’s interest, as it may be, to see their grandparents, then that is what should happen’.
A statement from the Ministry of Justice said: ‘The welfare of a child is the primary consideration for the family courts and steps are taken wherever possible to reduce the impact of family conflict on children when relationships end.’
Hopes among grandparents’ pressure groups and their supporters have grown following a Westminster debate last week in which MPs spoke of the pain of grandparents separated from their grandchildren. Justice minister Lucy Frazer offered to ‘look at’ legal reforms.
Since 2014, grandparents have been able to apply to the court for a ‘child arrangements order’, which can guarantee that they see their grandchild, and in some cases can rule that the grandchild must live with them.
But pressure groups complain that grandparents must get permission from a judge before they can apply for an order, and that once they get to court a ruling that they can see their grandchildren is not guaranteed.
During the Westminster Hall debate, Miss Frazer warned against automatic rights for grandparents. She said the requirement that grandparents must get permission from a court to apply for an order was recommended by a review of family justice carried out seven years ago.
Miss Frazer said: ‘it is meant to be a filter to sift out applications that are clearly not in a child’s best interests, such as vexatious applications aimed at undermining one of the parents involved in a dispute over the child or continuing parental conflict.’
She said of a change in the law to give grandparents priority: ‘Some people think that elevates the grandparents’ involvement into a right, whereas the family justice system puts the child, not the grandparent, at the heart of its consideration. There may be unintended consequences that we will have to look into.’
nigel Huddleston, Conservative MP for Mid-Worcestershire, who has been campaigning to stop grandparents being separated from their grandchildren, said ‘a number of grandparents’ had been visited by the police simply for sending cards or gifts to their grandchildren. ‘i have heard horrendous stories about children being put up for adoption despite the grandparents wanting to care for them,’ he said.
‘They cannot, however, afford the legal costs to pursue the issue through the courts.’
Commenting on Miss Frazer’s remarks, he said: ‘i was encouraged by the minister’s response, particularly her recognition that the system could work better.
‘it is clear that this is a growing issue affecting families across the country. i was inundated with communications from grandparents and grandchildren sharing their stories before the debate.’