"Rights for grandparents
The Protection from Harassment Act,
introduced to prevent stalkers targeting vulnerable women, should not be
deployed against grandparents who seek to keep in contact with their
grandchildren. In the difficult circumstances of a family break-up, grandparents are
often the forgotten victims of separation. Although they may have built a close
and emotional bond with their grandchildren, they have no automatic rights to
remain in contact with them when the relationship between the parents
collapses. This is bad enough; but it is bordering on the heartless when
grandparents risk arrest for sending a card or a present to a beloved
grandchild on his or her birthday or at Christmas.
It appears that the Protection from
Harassment Act, which was introduced to prevent stalkers targeting vulnerable
women, is being deployed against grandparents who seek to keep simply the most
passing contact with their grandchildren. According to campaigners,
grandparents risk arrest for sending cards if the parent with whom the child is
living objects to the continued contact. “This is not a small issue,” explains
Jane Jackson, of the Bristol Grandparents Support Group. “It is something that
desperately needs looking into. It is leaving loving grandparents frightened
and suicidal.”
This is clearly a difficult and emotive issue – and it is one that was
partially addressed in the Government’s Family Justice Review, conducted by
David Norgrove and published last year. It called for measures to ensure that
grandparents have a greater chance of retaining contact with their
grandchildren by emphasising the value of their access in parenting agreements.
However, divorces and separations are often so acrimonious that the prospect of
reasoned discussion about future access can be remote. The Queen’s Speech
foreshadowed a new Children and Families Bill, but the detailed legislation has
yet to appear. When it does, it should address this particular injustice."
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