grandparents unusual situation

[kiredor]

i have 2 grandchildren who were placed under a care order due to the parents( my son and daughter in laws) drink,drugs problems etc.
the children are at present fostered by the other grandparents who we have a good relationship with.
the parents have contact 4 hours each month at which we act as contact supervisors.
in our opinion the parents have pulled themselves together, stopped drinking and drugs have been to relate,anger managment and have regular alcohol tests, we see them regularly and now believe have a functional loving relationship,my son now has a good job and my daugter in law will start a part time job shortly.
before christmas a request was made to social services for more contact and they phoned us and asked if they could come to our house to do a contact assessment, in all 3 times at each meeting i asked for a copy of the notes they were taking.
in between the last two meetings my son applied to court for extra contactas we wre not getting anywere, at all times in the meetings we were honest and voiced the opinion that we thought the parents were now in a situation when plans should be to return the children to there parents.
we never recieved a copyof the assessment because it was now a court document but they would try to get us a copy before an arranged meeting to get
an answer.
at the meeting the assessment document was read to us , and we were told a copy had been sent to the court,allthough some of their comments during the reading were a bit unsettling , then the conclusion was read .
it stated that it had become apparent early in the assessment that we did not agree with the care plan and it would have helped them to have known this before we were allowed to supervise contact. that we were not supervising robustly enough and had unease about challenging the parents at contact which we cannot understand as it is not the case. then finally allthough they admitted it was their fault for not informing us what was expected of us to supervise contact from now on we are not allowed to.
this means that now my son is working and is restricted on holday entitlement he cannot arrange contact at weekends,we dont know when we can see our grandchildren, and have been penalised for our belief about the care plan even though we would never infer or discuss with the children,
Where do we go from here

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Kiredor,

I am sorry to hear that there appears to have been a difference in opinion around your role as contact supervisor. There also appears to be a breakdown in communication between the social worker and you as well. If you had known that they thought you were not robust enough then you may have had the opportunity to address this.

Now your contact with the children has stopped as well.

In respect of your own contact with the children, have a look at our advice sheet about contact with children under a care order .

Although parents are entitled to reasonable contact (unless a court order says otherwise), the law is different in respect of relatives.

Instead, children services must try to ‘promote’ contact between a child in care and their relatives, friends and others connected with them “unless it is not reasonably practicable or consistent with the child’s welfare”.
What can you do?

Consider getting legal advice form a children law solicitor.

I suggest that you also write a letter to the social worker and copy this in with the team manger. Also send a copy to the children’s guardian and solicitors for mum and dad. A copy could be sent to the court as well.

In the letter:
• Address briefly your position-around contact supervision. Address their worry that you may not understand the risks of Mum and dad. You could outline what you believe the risks to be, how you would have reacted if there was any risk.

• Set out your wish for contact with your grandchildren to continue

Set out your role in your grandchildren’s lives, show how you had been involved with the children before, how much contact you have had recently, how it is in the children’s best interests to still have contact with you. Our advice sheet also refers to research and government guidance about contact with the extended family and how this is important for children in the care system.

You could also arm yourself with information about drugs use from an organisation such as Adfam.

I wonder whether it might be better for you to post on the friend and family carers forum instead of the parents forum. Other relatives and friends could offer you support.

Best wishes,

Suzie