Landmark ruling puts a real value on grandparents

May 12 2010 by Hannah Davies, The Journal

DO WE need grandparents’ rights? Being a parent is, in terms of rights, a clear-cut affair.

If you are the biological or adopted parent you can see your child, play a role in their growing up, and are financially responsible for them.

The role of grandparents is a much murkier area.

On Monday, a grandmother from Kent won the right to be paid for looking after her 15-year-old granddaughter at the same rate as a foster mother.

A judge ruled that social workers could not pay her less than a foster parent, who is not related to the child.

Family lawyers have said it is a landmark decision and an important step towards new recognition of the rights of grandparents in the upbringing of their grandchildren.

This ruling should be universally applauded.

Not least for the reason if the grandmother hadn’t taken over her granddaughter’s care, the teenager would have been placed into state care, with all the costs and difficulties that involves.

Grandparents are often the unsung heroes of this country.

A quick straw poll of working mums and dads in this office shows how essential they are.

Whether it’s picking up a child from school or nursery, providing babysitting duties or giving parents a few hours off to catch up on housework, grandparents are invaluable.

Even when they live far away they literally go the extra mile. One friend’s parents travel 200 miles two to three times a month to spend time helping her out with her twin baby girls.

Another, who lives in Leeds and whose mum lived in Durham, used to travel to York each week to hand over her son for two days so she could finish her masters degree.