Can I insist on contact with grandchildren

[Roisin]

My 3 yr old granddaughter, (G). Was in foster care with her mum (my daughter) in a mother & baby placement. Court case last July 2013. My other daughter had been assessed for guardian ship. (she had cared for G in her home for 9 months of her life) All going well until the week before court, G's father (who had never met G) came forward to have G. Suddenly all assessments on him rushed through and Social services supported him having G. Judge rules that G's aunt would have been appropriate, but he had to give priority to birth father. There were some concerns still, but father had to attend mediation sessions, with Mum to work on informal contact arrangements, but Mums contact would need to be supervised. Aunts contact to be unsupervised. And after few months aunt would be able to supervises mum's contact. G now lives with her dad and his partner. Dad was with his partner when he had an affair with my daughter resulting in G being born. He has 2 older children and one younger, born 3 months after G was born)
We accepted the court judgement as we would still see G regularly. I have been in G's life since birth and was responsible for the first 2 weeks supervision after her birth on a contract with social services. Dad has not attended any mediation. he also stated in court that he would be main carer as he would not work for a year, but within 2 weeks he was working and the partner is now the main carer. This was not what was agreed in court.
Since G went to live with her dad and partner. her aunt has only seen her once and I have not been allowed to see her at all. The dad and partner will not communicate with us. I have tried through the SW and he has tried talking to them, but they ignore all calls and even when agreeing to contact with the SW, they then cancel it. I live 300 miles away and had arranged to see G at Xmas, but it was cancelled. I arranged with SW to see her in February and I travelled down there only for the SW to phone me at 5pm the day before contact to say that dad had changed his mind. The SW seemed to be supporting me in G being able to have a relationship with her grandmother, and responded to emails saying he would keep trying. Now he doesn't even respond to my emails. I always copy into the manager and she also now doesn't respond. he is never in when I call the office. The original intention from court was that Sw would monitor for 6 months and then transfer to another local authority where the dad lives, providing all was going to plan. . I know that they will be trying to get rid of this case now. But all is not resolved. G has been isolated from her maternal family that she has known all her life. her aunt had her living with her more than she lived with her mum, and they are very close. Aunt has gone back to the solicitor to take it back to court for contact, but she will not get legal aid now and cannot afford it. The solicitor advised her to write to the judge to ask for it to go back to court.
G surely has a right to see her grandmother and aunt. its not about us, its about G not knowing her family and growing up thinking that we didn't want to know her. dad and partner don't want us to know where they live so I cannot even send her birthday cards. I still have her xmas and birthday presents and I cant send them to her. I have asked SW to arrange a meeting with me and Dad to reasure him, but I'm getting no response.
What can I do? Has anyone else written to the judge and is this a good idea?

[David Roth]

Roisin, you may want to make a formal complaint about the social worker not doing the things that the court judgment stated he ought to be doing. It is unacceptable that you are not getting any response from the social worker or his manager. It is true that they may not see it as being the highest priority piece of work that they have to do, but what happens now is going to have long-term repercussions within your family. Your granddaughter is going to grow up either knowing or not knowing one side of her family, according to what happens now.

You can find out how to make a formal complaint by reading our advice sheet 25: http://www.frg.org.uk/need-help-or-advice/advice-sheets

[Roisin]

Thank you. I will make formal complaint now. However we have discovered that the case has now passed to the other local authority. I am going to write to them to ask about contact, but it seems that they cannot be aware of any problems as they have not allocated a social worker to my grandchild, but have allocated a family support worker. At the original court case the new local authority would not agree to take the case unless all was running smoothly after 6 months with no problems. I cannot see how this was able to be transferred when there were problems and none of the original judgement had been kept to at all. This last 9 months has been wasted with the old local authority doing nothing to resolve the situation, before transferring it.
Have you any advice about what my daughter's solicitor advised about writing to the judge? I had also thought of getting a solicitor to write to the authority on my behalf. has anyone done this? does it do any good?

[David Roth]

Roisin, you should find out from the new local authority what they were informed about the case when the handover took place. They will probably be quite unhappy about it if the case is more complex than they were told, and they might even think the first local authority should not have handed it over until they had dealt with outstanding business.

Anyway, if they first local authority did not provide the new local authority with the full information that they would need in order to provide you and your granddaughter with the support you need, then that could be added to your complaint.

[David Roth]

If the solicitor has advised writing to the judge, then it may be worth giving that a go. Solicitors often know how different judges are likely to react, and the solicitor may know that this particular judge would want to follow up their original judgment to ensure it is being implemented.

It may be that being taken back to court would reinforce to dad that he is supposed to be allowing contact to mum's family.

[Concerned2013]

Mediation between parties would be best option and it is in the best interest of children to know and interact with family and others. This should be explained to parent(s) or whoever has parental responsibility.

However if you wish to pursue through courts for a contact order.




Human Rights Act

Article 8: Right to Respect for Private and Family Life

1. Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence.



This element of Article 8 protects your right to respect for your close family relationships and matters relating to those relationships, for example how parents choose to discipline their children. The question of whether a relationship will fall within the ambit of ‘family life’ for the purposes of Article 8 will depend on the nature of the relationship and the existence of close personal ties. In addition to the relationship between a mother and father and between children and their parents, ‘family life’ will include unmarried couples and the relationship between an illegitimate child and either parent as well as other family relationships, for example relationships between siblings and between adopted children and adoptive parents

Rights of The Child

Article 8 (Preservation of identity): Children have the right to an identity – an official record of who they are. Governments should respect children’s right to a name, a nationality and family ties.Family life

.

Article 13 (Freedom of expression): Children have the right to get and share information, as long as the information is not damaging to them or others. In exercising the right to freedom of expression, children have the responsibility to also respect the rights, freedoms and reputations of others. The freedom of expression includes the right to share information in any way they choose, including by talking, drawing or writing.

If the Child/ren) is requesting contact with you and other family members and is being stopped without very good reason, this is a violation of their rights,

Experience suggest the LA do not like you pointing out their duties, but if needs must.

Rights of the Child.

Article 4 (Protection of rights): Governments have a responsibility to take all available measures to make sure children’s rights are respected, protected and fulfilled.

Human Rights Act

Article 10 protects your right to freedom of expression. This includes the right to hold and express opinions yourself as well as to receive and impart information and ideas to others.

Some rights are what are called a qualified right.

Article 8 is qualified right. This means that an interference with the right can be justified in certain circumstances. Where the interference is justified, there will be no breach of Article 8.
The circumstances where an interference with the right can be justified are set out in the second part of the article (Article 8(2)).

For an interference to be justified it must:
Be ‘in accordance with the law’ - this means that there has to be clear legal basis for the interference and that the law should be readily accessible.
Pursue a legitimate aim - there are six legitimate aims set out in Article 8(2), including ‘the prevention of disorder or crime’ and ‘the protection of the rights and freedoms of others’. A public authority which intends to interfere with a person’s rights under Article 8 must be able to show that what they are doing pursues one of these six legitimate aims. This is rarely a problem, as the legitimate aims are so widely drawn.
Be ‘necessary in a democratic society’ - This is usually the crucial issue. There must be a good reason for the interference with the right and the interference must be proportionate which means that it should be no more than is necessary. If there is an alternative, less intrusive, way of achieving the same aim then the alternative measure should be used.

http://www.yourrights.org.uk/yourrights ... -life.html

[Roisin]

Thanks for all the advice. I have made a formal complaint to the old LA and written to the new LA to inform them that contact has never taken place and the judgement not adhered to.
As for mediation- the judge said that the father & his partner, mother and the aunt had to attend mediation to work towards informal contact arrangements, which the mother and aunt attended, but the father & partner refused to attend any sessions. Also the judge stated there were to be monthly review meetings between same 4 people, once again the mother & aunt attended the first one, but the father & partner refused to attend, so there were no more review meetings. or they did have the meetings without the mother and aunt.
What is the point of the supervision order, if it shows that the judgement was ignored, yet nothing is done about it?