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


Friday, 8 June 2012

Editorial Comment from The Telegraph.

Many thanks for the Editorial comment:

"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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