Grandparents contact with other sibling not in care

[Littlepeople]

Please could someone advise me on this situation

My granddaughter was recently taken into temporary foster care but she is being returned to my son and his partner today. My son has a child with a previous partner who we see every week and he stays with us every Thursday night, then stays with his dad till the Sunday. We then take him back to his mothers who lives in a different county to us (we drive, my son doesn't)

My grandsons mother has been told by social workers yesterday to not allow us contact with our grandson until further notice. We understand that my son would not be able to have our grandson and for the past two weeks, we had him the whole weekend due to the ongoing investigations. This was not by order of social services, we chose to do this so there were no complications with our grandson and the ongoing investigation with his baby sister.

We have not been contacted by social services at all, I am waiting for a phone call from the social worker who is overseeing my granddaughters case. I'm not sure if this is down to poor communication between social workers, as the social workers in my grandsons county were unaware that my granddaughter is returning home today. Can they stop us seeing our grandson when we are not part of the investigation?

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Littlepeople

Welcome to the Family and Friend's Board. My name is Suzie, one of FRG's online advisers.

If they have not done so already, I would be asking that the current social worker enters into a contract of expectations with you, so that there is clarity about exactly what is expected of you with regards to the care of your grandchild and the agreed contact arrangements involving your son.

At the current time you do not have parental responsibility for him and there is an absence of clear communication with regards to his care which has the potential to lead to confusion and uncertainty.

If in the meantime, you wish to speak to an adviser on our advice line can I suggest you contact 0808 801 0366 Monday to Friday 09.30 am to 03.00 pm am also providing our advice sheet about child protection investigations for your reference.

Best Wishes

Suzie