Jimmy Deuchars: Grandparents' key role should be recognised

When social services want to exclude grandparents from a child's life, the reason they give is that grandparents are not "relevant persons".

Therefore social services, working on the government's behalf, are not geared for grandparents and are unable to give them the relevance which children deserve.

Too often this causes conflict and fear for grandparents to approach the authorities for help when they see their grandchildren in difficulties, meaning children lose out on the care and protection that their grandparents could offer.

Making grandparents officially relevant would bring about a positive change which would be in the best interests of children, without giving rights.

In a debate in the Scottish Parliament last December, Labour stated that, if elected in 2011, they plan to revisit the Charter for Grandchildren with a view to amending legislation to focus on the best interests of children, hopefully including grandparents as relevant persons in the lives of children.

The charter covers every possibility of their natural family caring for children before the drastic step of adoption or their placement in the care system is considered.

Recognising the Charter for Grandchildren would ensure that, where kinship care is suitable, children are allowed to remain within their family and not suffering the trauma of being shunted from stranger to stranger and the possibility of becoming bitter and resentful, thinking no-one cares about them.

Successful mediation is based on getting the groundwork right with a change of culture and attitude from government, social services and agencies to accept that all paternal members of a child's family are not violent. Funding should be awarded to focus on resolution, education and support for families.

• Jimmy Deuchars is the co-founder of Grandparents Apart UK.