Response re T C.

A response re :T C

Dear Jane

Thank you for your email of 13 March regarding Mr T C and his request to see his daughter before leaving to serve with the Army in Afghanistan. Your email has been passed to the Department for Education as we have policy responsibility for family law. I must begin by explaining that Government Ministers and officials are not able to comment on or intervene in individual cases. This is not because of any lack of concern for the issues raised, but so that there can be no risk of perceived or actual interference in the independence of the judiciary, or other agencies involved in a particular case. However, the Government is aware of the challenges faced by many families involved in family law cases. When dealing with these cases, all judges and holders of judicial office are expected to display tact, sympathy and understanding. In the longer term the Government will be drawing on the recommendations of the Family Justice Review Panel (whose interim report has just been published) to improve the experience of children and families involved in family proceedings. I gather from the Bristol Grandparents Support Group's website that Mr C did get the opportunity to see his daughter briefly before leaving for duty. I wish him the very best of luck while serving his country, and a safe return from Afghanistan.

Regards Lesley O'Connor Public Communications Unit www.education.gov.uk Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number 2011/0024049. To contact the Department for Education, please visit www.education.gov.uk/contactus

Message from serving soldier.

You will remember me telling you about the young serving soldier who was not given permission to say goodbye to his daughter before he embarked for his tour of duty, in Afghanistan.

He says he his safe and well and is serving his country as well as fighting his own very personal injustice.

He has asked me if there is any publicity in papers etc could I send them to him, which of course I will.

I would be grateful if you could let me know if your local papers have featured this young mans heartbreak.

It is up to those of us here, to keep up the pressure.

Jane
www.bristolgrandparentssupportgroup.co.uk

If a judge has read it wrong, I despair.

After last weeks interim report for FJR, we had misleading headlines all over the papers and the BBC, the next day a judge wrote to the paper saying,"Sir,The headline"New Divorce laws will guarantee grandparents access to children." is misleading. The proposals will do no such thing.]Grandparents will no longer have to apply for permission to make an application for contact to a grandchild.[Whether or not they see their grandchild depends entirely on whether it is in the childs best interest for them to do so. Parents and grandparents have no rights over children,only obligations.It is the welfare of the child that is the paramount consideration.In practice many grandparents are granted residence orders where the parents are unable to cope,and without them many more children would end up in care. Many grandparents lose touch with grandchildren for the same reasons that parents lose contact with their children: because of hostility,distance,financial reasons or simply because they are inadequate."

PETER DEVLIN.

District Judge,Slough County Court.

This is actually what the report says;

 The need for grandparents to apply for leave of the court before making an application for contact should remain. (Paragraph 5.82)

For ... sake, what an utter disgrace the entire letter is for everyone not able to be part of their children/grandchildren's lives.

I don't want rights, I just want to know my granddaughter is safe and happy.

Jane
www.bristolgrandparentssupportgroup.co.uk

Being Denied Contact Is Not Always As a Result Of Divorce Issues.

It needs to be said that being denied contact with your grandchildren is not by any means always when sons/daughters relationships with their partners breaks down.

Within the Bristol Group there are many grandparents who are not allowed to see their grandchildren because their sons or daughters ,fall out with their family and decide that they no longer want the children to have any relationship with their grandparents.

It is difficult to know how this situation can be resolved.

There are also cases where a son or daughter dies prematurely and the parent left behind wants to cut all association with the husband or wife they have so tragically lost.

Of course every story is different, but the end result is always the same, the children are being denied their human right to have contact with their extended family, if it is safe for them to do so.

What happens when children are old enough to make their own decisions?

Will they turn their backs on adults who have not been truthful with them?

Will they resent the lost years of having a loving relationship with their grandparents?

Time will tell.

I would ask anyone who is preventing their children from having contact with their grandparents to think to the future, don't burden the children with this,you may not see eye to eye with other family members but allow your children to make their own mind up.

Who is the winner in all of this?

Absolutely no-one.

In these unsettled times we are all seeing and experiencing around the world, we must get back to valuing families and the importance of families in our broken society.

Our children are the future of this world, we owe it to them to put this right.

Jane

www.bristolgrandparentssupportgroup.co.uk

Grannynet.

If you haven't already have a look at this website www.grannynet.co.uk lots of friendly Grans, good advice and forum, and Bristol Grandparents has an article on their homepage.

Jane
www.bristolgrandparentssupportgroup.co.uk

Times Article

To respond online click link.

The MS Word document version to download

Family Justice Review Report Consultation. I understand that ONLY 600 people actually responded the first time so............

Jane