Role of Family Court in enabling grandparents to maintain a relationship with grandchildren

The role of the Family Court in enabling grandparents to maintain a relationship with their grandchildren

Grandparents can play a pivotal role in a child’s life and can provide stability and support, emotional, financial and otherwise during a child’s formative years.  

Too many grandparents however face heartbreak, when the relationship of their own adult child breaks down, finding themselves penalised by the deprivation of their access to their beloved grandchildren.

This matter was recently raised in Parliament and the Secretary for State for Justice reported that, on average, and during 2013 and 2014, seven applications for contact with their grandchildren were being made by grandparents to the Family Court every day.  

It is only when faced with the heartrending prospect of seeing their relationship with their grandchildren severed; grandparents are horrified to be told they have no automatic right to contact with their grandchildren following a separation or breakdown of their own children’s relationship.  In many cases they are left with no recourse save but to seek relief from the Family Court.  More often than not it is the paternal grandparents who find themselves left in this invidious position often because the mother of their grandchildren is using contact between her children and her ex-partner’s parents as a means by which to exert strategic or tactical advantage within the relationship breakdown.

Under the current law, grandparents do not have any legal rights to have contact with their children and have therefore to make a preliminary application for permission to proceed at all with an application for a contact order which, since changes which came about in the spring of 2014 are now known as “Child Arrangement Orders”.  

Grandparents have a significant role to play in a child’s life, have much to teach and learn, and much to give and receive.  In the event alternative dispute resolution cannot resolve issues relating to the relationship between a grandparent and a grandchild when the child’s parents separate many grandparents walk away as opposed to litigating, for fear of making matters worse, hence the child is deprived of contact with a much loved family member who has often played a significant role in their lives since birth.

It is perhaps time for a change in the law whereby there is a general presumption that a child has a right to have contact with members of its immediate extended family including grandparents as opposed to the alienated grandparents finding themselves on the back foot with regard to their rights and responsibilities in relation to their grandchildren.  

If this affects you, please do not hesitate to contact a member of our family team on 01273 324041 or enquiries@gsfwsolicitors.co.uk. 

Written by Susan Hayes, LLP Partner and Head of the Family Department, Griffith Smith Farrington Webb.

If you want to contribute to the Chamber blog, contact us on hannah@brightonchamber.co.uk