Welcome.


Hi everyone and welcome to Bristol Grandparents Support Group blog. Although we are Bristol based we have grandparents from all over the UK and beyond as members.

It is estimated that over one million children in the UK are denied contact with their grandparents due to family breakdown which may have been caused by divorce/separation, alcohol/drug dependency,domestic violence,bereavement or family feud.
Every child has the right to have contact with their grandparents
if they wish and unless proven unsafe for them to do so. To deny contact from a parent or grandparent has to become as socially unacceptable as drink driving.
I hope to keep you up to date with what is going on in BGSG and I shall continue to campaign for the rights of children to have a loving and meaningful relationship with both parents and their extended family. So please join in as good to hear your views, not just mine!
I also will support via Skype.
There is no membership fee to be part of Bristol Grandparents Support Group.
Esther Rantzen says, " To every grandparent, links of love can never be broken in our hearts."

Please contact during office hours.
07773258270


Sunday 14 November 2010

Press Release.


Charlotte Leslie MP meeting some of The Bristol Grandparents Support Group.


(Photo names left to right, Ann ,Daphne ,Charlotte ,Ruth , Mary, Audrey and front row Marc and Jane Jackson.)



On Saturday Nov 13th Charlotte Leslie MP was invited to meet some of the, ‘The Bristol Grandparents Support Group’ and to listen to the issues that face grandchildren and grandparents who are denied contact with each other.

Spokesperson, Jane Jackson for the group said,

“Over one million children in the UK are affected by being denied contact, the situation that they and grandparents find themselves in can be caused by any of these situations, separation/divorce of their parents/children, alcohol/drug dependency ,domestic violence, bereavement or family feud.

With The Family Justice Review being discussed at the moment with a report due in the Spring, it is vital that the government take this opportunity to address the heartbreaking position we and our grandchildren find themselves in. I believe that when a couple make the decision to split mediation should be a compulsory element and during that mediation legal agreements drawn up concerning contact with firstly non resident parents and then the grandparents and all extended family, if the agreement is not adhered to there must be consequences, at present there is very rarely any redress.

The children must also be involved in this process.

This has never been about Grandparents Rights but the rights of our grandchildren, they have the right to contact with their grandparents and extended family if it is safe for them to do so.

Of course there may well be situations when it is not safe for children to see their grandparents but equally there are some parents who should not have contact with their children , but in both cases that is a very small minority.

To have Charlotte Leslie championing the rights of our grandchildren is most definitely a very big step in the right direction.”

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