Desperate for guidance

[Loobyloo]

Nearly 9 weeks ago my grandchildren were taken into child protective services, I am a witness to an incident and was able to stay in the hospital with my grandchildren for 2 nights until I was asked to leave them alone with social services this broke my heart and my husband’s, since then we have been added into court proceedings for the children as intervenor (finding out this means pool of perpetrators) now I’m not stupid but I thought this would be straight forward, we have done statements for the judge and the court parties to say what contact we had I took photos and videos of the time spent with the children which shows no issues at all. The incident that happened was horrific and I can’t go into details for protection. I have asked and emailed numerous times to have contact with the children but we keep hitting walls, one person saying police have to give advice, yet I’ve spoke to the lead investigator and they have no issues it’s down to social services. We have a solicitor that helped do the statements and she is aware we’re trying for for contact and what’s going on. Now although grandparents don’t have rights why is it that because of someone else’s actions the children and ourselves are being punished from seeing each other? I understand the role of the intervenor more now and it’s possible they are waiting to read our statements, but this is still cruel, we do have other grandchildren but they don’t live close by anymore because of the commitments of the parents job. This system while I’m having to ride it seems very unfair how is it normal for the children not to see familiar faces etc. My heart is broken esp when I myself had lots of contact with them. We have also put ourselves forward for care of the children they are both under 5. What do I do I feel like I’m failing them and no one is listening . Thank you and sorry for the long post .

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Loobyloo

Welcome to the parents’ discussion board. Thank you for your post. My name is Suzie. I am Family Rights Group’s online adviser.

I am sorry to hear about the difficult situation your family is going through. I can understand how distressing this is for you. You describe your close relationship with your grandchildren and the distress you are feeling as you are not able to see them currently.

I understand that your grandchildren are currently in foster care under an interim care order due to an alleged non-accidental injury to one or more of the children. You explain that you are in the pool of potential perpetrators and as such have been joined to the children’s case as an intervenor. You have a solicitor who is representing you in the care proceedings. Please see our guide to working with a solicitor and our advice on care proceedings as they may be helpful to you. Your solicitor is best placed to provide you with specific legal advice though.

You are upset that you are not able to see your grandchildren at present. It is correct that as a grandparent you don’t have parental responsibility or an automatic right to see your grandchildren but contact is for their benefit and there is much research to show that spending time with family members can be very positive for children when they are in care. There seems to be differing opinions about why contact is not happening e.g. whether police need to approve. But you have been told by the police that this is for children’s services to decide. I would recommend the following:

• Read our advice on children in care keeping in contact with parents and wider family members.
• Contact the children’s social worker and Independent Reviewing Officer by email to ask them to clarify in writing why there is no current plan for supervised contact to happen and to request that this be urgently reviewed. You can quote the police lead investigator who commented that they have no issues with this.
• Set out their duty to promote contact between children and their wider family and that statutory guidance states that “contact can be very important in helping children and young people develop their sense of identity and understand their lives and their sense of self.”
• Ask that they consider and let you know any arrangements for you and the children to spend time with each other, and that you understand that this will be supervised for now.
• Sometimes grandparents are allowed to attend contact with their son or daughter if they consent too so that may be an option.
• If children’s services do not respond to you or you are unhappy with their response you can consider making a complaint.
• Also discuss with your solicitor and take on board any advice or guidance they give you on how to proceed including considering applying to the court for contact.

You have also put yourself forward to be assessed as potential carers for your grandchildren. Have you had a viability assessment yet? If not, you should formally request that children’s services arrange this. You solicitor can put your details forward to the court too. Please see our practice guide to initial family and friends (viability assessments) to help you prepare for an assessment.

I hope this is helpful to you. Please call our freephone advice line if you would like to discuss your situation in more detail with an adviser. The number is 0808 8010366 and lines are open from 9.30 am to 3.00 pm, Mon to Fri (except bank holidays). If you prefer please post back on this forum where I will respond to your queries and you may also get useful advice and support from other kinship carers.

Best wishes

Suzie