Vulnerable Children Team,
Social Services and Children.
Dear Vivian
Charter for Grandchildren
Please accept my thanks in the first instance for the courtesy shown to me by your response to my email requesting support from Gwenda Thomas AM Deputy Minister for Children and Social Services for the Aberconwy Assembly Member Janet Finch-Saunders AM who led the short debate in the Senedd on the 23rd November 2011 for “A Charter for Grandchildren.”
Janet Finch-Saunders AM and Mark Isherwood AM have been working with Grandparents Apart Wales for many years and they know by the amount of case work they receive the true reality and concerns of families who for no logical reason are denied access to their grand/children and the psychological and emotion damage such decisions have on the minds of the children involved.
I was fortunate as were many others to watch the debate and I did so with great interest and following the debate the charity has received more enquiries from the public for help and support.
Now that the charter has been mentioned in the Senedd we feel that we can move on from there with greater authority, and vigour to help those grand/parents denied access to their grand/children here in Wales.
You letter to me was extremely encouraging in so much, that for the first time we are in receipt of a communication on behalf of a Government Minister recognising and advocating the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child when usually it is our charity and others that campaign for its recognition and promotion.
We are happy to say that it follows that we have more in common concerning the protection and the rights of grand/children than differences.
Returning to the confusion aspect in the terminology that the minister uses frequently regarding the charter,
we reiterate the fact that Grandparents Apart UK were campaigning for a Charter for Grandchildren many years before the governments in the UK recognised the UNCRC and we in our campaigns used the UNCRC to support the rights of children, to be protected by such a charter which as you know was adopted in Scotland in 2006.
I cite the letter written by the Deputy Minister to Val Lloyd AM, Chair of the Petitions Committee dated 18th November 2009 in response to our petition for A Charter for Grandchildren which makes no reference to the UNCRC at all yet it is now the corner stone of the Deputy Minister’s response.
There is such a lot of legal argument resulting in many court appearances regarding children’s issues which has naturally consequences to the minds of children where a Charter for Grandchildren is simple and concise.
On Thursday the 1st December 2011 there was a protest march in Edinburgh by members and sympathisers from Grandparents Apart UK, Fathers Need Families, and Fathers for Justice to highlight the fact that the Scottish Charter for Grandchildren is being totally ignored by the people employed in Children’s Agencies to the detriment of families and children in particular.
It is our experience from the many enquiries that we receive that Children’s Agencies here in Wales work to their own agenda paying no heed at all to the UNCRC or any other measures that the Welsh Government have in place to protect the wellbeing of children, when they are involved in the conflict of their parents whom they love equally.
No matter what the criteria or principles the Welsh Government adopt or recognise regarding the rights of the child here in Wales it is the enforcing of the government’s statutory entitlements and commitments to families and grand/children that is essential and absolutely necessary, but sadly this is not happening.
If these entitlements and commitments were enforced there would evolve a change in parent’s perception which would recognise the need for agreements to be made considering the situation of their children, and it is our contention that any arrangements made regarding children’s wellbeing should be made prior to the parent’s separating and not post when parent’s lives are in turmoil with so many other issues needing attention.
Our thanks Vivian to you and the minister who was benevolent as she was gracious in staying in the Senedd to parcipate and answer Janet Finch-Saunders AM’s call for a Charter for Grandchildren when all other Assembly Members with the exception of the Conservative had left the chamber for whatever reason.
Grandparents Apart Wales recognise the minister’s politeness and good manners and hope that we may write to her again.
Our best wishes
Frank Bradfield,
Grandparents Apart Wales
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