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Mediation for Grandparents
The Governments Green Paper identified that grandparents often play a key role in children’s’ lives, providing practical and emotional support. However, when parents separate, grandparents may find that their contact with the grandchildren is difficult to sustain. The Grandparents Association estimates that one million children have lost contact with grandparents through parental divorce, separation, family feud or adoption.
One key proposal in the green paper is to amend the Children Act, so that Grandparents no longer need to seek the court’s leave in order to bring an application for contact with grandchildren. By removing the leave requirement, the government intends to give greater recognition to the important role that grandparents play, and to encourage more of them to use the family justice system where contact with grandchildren has been lost. The government is also consulting on whether other family members should also be able to apply without leave. Other proposals include setting up a web site (BeGrand.net) to provide information for grandparents and a directory of legal and non-legal resources.
Where relations between parents and grandparents have broken down, mediation can offer a flexible, informal and confidential way to help re-establish contact with grandchildren, without the need to go to court which can often have a negative impact on the future of the family relationships. Within mediation the parties can explore issues surrounding the breakdown of relationships, establish realistic expectations of each other and develop possibilities for restoring contact in a way that is workable and which benefits the children.
Whether or not the law changes, Mediation is already available, and is a much less acrimonious way of resolving differences
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