25.01.10 - BeGrand.net launches its new 'destination' website BeGrand.net for grandparents.

25.01.10 - Grandparents key to instilling traditional values in families - link to download below

20.01.10 - The Government has at last regognised the important role that Grandparents play in family life - Liz Buckland Bromley Support Group

20.01.10 - Green Paper launch - Natalie Henningham from Grandparents' Association interview - "I gave up my job to look after my grandson"

20.01.10  ED BALLS: ‘New package of measures to recognise grandparents’

15.12.09 -   Lynn Chesterman CE of Grandparents Association' met with the Policy Unit at 10 Downing St

07.12.09  Grandparents' Association are guests of three ministers at Lancaster House for the Celebration of the role of Grandparents

13.11.09 - Grandparent' Association seeks Policy and Resources Manager

28 October 2009 - Grandparents' Association is part of a newly-formed consortium to building an online service focused on helping and supporting Grandparents.

September 2009 - The Kinship Care Alliance - A Policy Briefing on Family and Friends Care: raising children within the wider family as an alternative to care

27.01.10 - Kids in Museums Family Ticket Watch Campaign

The Grandparents' Association welcomes the Kids in Museums campaign to support the Flexible Family Ticket.

A survey will provide much needed answers to make sure that a family ticket reflects the diversity of family life today.

So, can you provide a few answers to the following questions?

What has been your experience of a family ticket?
What would you like a family ticket to be?
Does your family fit the shape of a standard family ticket?
What’s the shape of your family? Mum plus her four kids. Dad plus his only child. Grandparents and their grandchildren, for whom they care. Mum, Dad, Auntie and her daughter.
What’s the shape of a typical family ticket to a museum or gallery? Two plus two.

The Flexible Family Ticket campaign is supported by the Department for Children, Schools and Families to help families of all shapes and sizes to feel welcome in museums and galleries across Britain.

Feedback can be given as follows:

Email – This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Twitter – www.twitter.com/familyticket
Website – www.familyticketwatch.org.uk
Post – Family Ticket Watch
Kids in Museums
Downstream Building
One London Bridge
London SE1 9BG

Kids in Museums will publish the results of all your comments in March, recommending a Flexible Family Ticket format that can be adopted by all museums and galleries, to really reflect the changing face of families in Britain today. Thank you for your help!

25.01.10 - BeGrand.net launches its new 'destination' website BeGrand.net for grandparents.
Grandparents are taking the lead in teaching grandchildren a host of traditional values and are frequently acting as their confidants according to a new study out today commissioned to mark the launch of BeGrand.net, an important new online resource for grandparents providing information, advice and support to help them with every challenge they may face.

The Grandparents' Association is part of the partnership behind BeGrand.net and is working together with Digital Unite and Opportunity Links to deliver this new site.The site ams to provide a ‘destination website’ for grandparents with quality, trustworthy information, covering all aspects of grandparenting, from serious legal and social problems to mainstream, every day issues and experiences.

Begrand.net is focused on grandparents and their points of view. Though there’s information out there on childcare, it tends to be pointed at parents.  In the same way, there are sites that help you make friends with other people caring for children, they tend to be pointed at mums.  

Begrand.net will facilitate a community where grandparents can talk to each other about what matters to them

The site is all about getting grandparents to share ideas and support each other, in a safe and friendly environment.  The site will provide easy tools and the confidence to use and shape a community

It will also provide 1-2-1 advice and support via online advisors. This is confidential advice and support via web chat email and telephone.The Grandparents' Association is part of the partnership behind BeGrand.net and is working together with Digital Unite and Opportunity Links.The site ams to provide a ‘destination website’ for grandparents with quality, trustworthy information, covering all aspects of grandparenting, from serious legal and social problems to mainstream, every day issues and experiences.

Begrand.net is focused on grandparents and their points of view. Though there’s information out there on childcare, it tends to be pointed at parents.  In the same way, there are sites that help you make friends with other people caring for children, they tend to be pointed at mums.  

Begrand.net will facilitate a community where grandparents can talk to each other about what matters to them

The site is all about getting grandparents to share ideas and support each other, in a safe and friendly environment.  The site will provide easy tools and the confidence to use and shape a community

It will also provide 1-2-1 advice and support via online advisors. This is confidental one to one advice and support via web chat email and telephone.

25.01.10 - BeGrand.net NEW STUDY  - GRANDPARENTS KEY TO INSTILLING TRADITIONAL VALUES IN FAMILIES
Download the press release - Launch_release_broadsheet_FINAL.pdf size 109.79kb
To visit the website, go to www.begrand.net

20.01.10 - The Government has at last regognised the important role that Grandparents play in family life - Liz Buckland Bromley Support Group

Grandparents …..

Good news in the new proposals set out in the discussion document issued by the Government on 20th January 2010, Support for all: the Families and Relationships Green Paper. The Government has at last recognised the important role that Grandparents play in family life providing childcare, emotional and financial support. I was privileged to be invited to attend the launch of the Green Paper on 20th January 2010 at the Harmwood Children’s Centre in Camden attended by Ministers Ed Balls and Dawn Primarolo.

Apart from more support to Grandparents from Children’s Centres in the form of involvement of Grandparents: improved information about legal rights after divorce or separation (Contact in the case of grandparents) the Government is proposing to remove the need for ‘Leave to Apply’ for contact giving Grandparents the automatic right to apply for a Contact Order.

This is a great step forward, as those who have made an ‘application for leave’ will know, it can not only save money - we’d all pay any amount to be able to see our grandchildren - but will remove, in some cases, months of too-ing and fro-ing in the courts before the actual Contact Application is even considered.

From both the grandparent’s and the child’s perspective this is valuable time lost, we know that children grow and develop so quickly. In some cases the parents even use this delay as an added excuse for opposing contact, saying that so much time has passed the child/children ‘don’t remember’ their grandparent/s.

During discussions with us he advocated the use of mediation as a possible alternative to the present adversarial and potentially antagonistic court system. In addition the Family Court system is overburdened and expensive to administer.

Prior to making an application for Leave or Contact, it is expected that this route will have been explored and in deed, the Judge, when you get to court, can order the parties to attend Family Mediation. However, unless there is some sort of penalty imposed on those who don’t or won’t attend the sessions, it won’t always have the desired outcome. However, it would reduce the work of the Courts considerably and may speed up Application for Contact hearings.

Liz Buckland - Bromley Support Group

20.01.10 ED BALLS: ‘New package of measures to recognise grandparents’

Children’s Secretary Ed Balls will on Wednesday unveil the Families and Relationship Green Paper setting out a wide range of measures to support all families as they bring up their children and to help families cope with times of stress and difficulty.

The Government is committed to supporting all parents, grandparents and carers in sustaining strong and resilient relationships. For the first time grandparents are going to be recognised for the informal but essential role they play in providing childcare, this will mean:

•        new legal measures for grandparents, including on kinship care, and

•        a new website ‘BeGrand’ specifically targeted at grandparents

The website will provide a directory of services and peer support, online advisers, information and advice on everything from cooking with grandchildren to legal rights and issues around kinship care.

We know that overall 68 per cent of grandparents feel very close to their grandchild. But at the same time, whilst most grandparents enjoy caring for children half of them feel more stressed.

The ‘BeGrand’ website will help towards relieving the stress of grandparents who are not sure what to do or where to go for information on activities or even legal advice. They can even speak to other grandparents about how they can support their grandchildren better.

However, sometimes through times of parent’s separation the relationship between grandparents and their children can be lost, even though this may not be in the best interests of the child.

An estimated one million grandchildren are denied contact with their grandparents as a result of adoption, divorce, separation or family feud. Our aim is to remove the barrier to ongoing contact between grandparents and their grandchildren after parents separate.

The current requirement for grandparents is to seek leave from the court before they can apply for contact. The Government is proposing to remove this requirement to signal that it recognises the important role that many grandparents play in supporting/caring for their grandchildren, and that more grandparents are able to seek contact with their grandchildren through the courts.

The Government will therefore provide more information for grandparents about their legal and other options in maintaining their relationships with their grandchildren, post parental separation and divorce.

Children’s Secretary Ed Balls said:

“We want to support strong and stable families and help families help themselves. Grandparents are often the unsung heroes when it comes to informal care arrangements for children and young people. They play an invaluable role for millions of families, helping to bring up children and also helping working families balance work and family life and stepping in when things go wrong.

“By giving families and grandparents the right information and advice they can remain in control over how and when to access help and support when they are under pressure and their relationships are suffering. It’s time they receive the recognition they deserve.

“Removing the barriers that grandparents face in courts, when they wish to see their grandchildren through times of divorce and separation, will relieve an enormous burden currently placed on grandparents. 

“Often when parents separate, grandparents are a valuable source of support for children and young people, providing them with the stability they need during difficult and emotional times.”

Information and advice will be delivered through a variety of online services centred around the new website, ‘BeGrand’, including:

o       Guides and factsheets drawing on Grandparents’ Association’s existing content library, to deliver grandparent focused information resources around key issues and to build parenting skills;

o       A directory of services drawing on existing directories such as the Parent KnowHow Directory, which grandparents can use to find out about events in their local area;

o       Online Advisors who will provide information and expert advice to grandparents, through email, instant messaging, and web chat.

o       A question and answer peer support service allowing users to post and respond to short questions.

Kinship carers

Some grandparents (and other family members) take on the care of their grandchildren when the parents are unable to, for example if they have drug, alcohol or mental health problems.

We want to make sure that family and friends carers are properly recognised and that they get the support they need.

There are currently unacceptable variations between local authorities in the level of support and services available to kinship carers.

New measures to help in this situation include:

-          strengthening the National Minimum Standards for foster carers so that family and friends carers receive training, development and financial support from fostering service providers in line with that paid to other foster carers;

-          giving local authorities statutory guidance on how to treat and interact with family and friend carers in this situation;

-          producing a support pack for relatives who are caring for children because of a parents drug or alcohol misuse.

The support pack, which will be available in hard copy and online, will include issues such as understanding benefits, care status, and drug treatment. 

Ed Balls and Health Secretary Andy Burnham will also later this week host a summit with health visitors, midwives, charities and new dads to address how to help dads get more involved in all the important stages of their child’s birth and early years. Challenging workforce to share good practice – they will hear from dads why they feel left out and what professionals can do to include them.

The Government is also tomorrow publishing a New Dads Guide, through the popular Bounty packs, to give tailored advice and tips for fathers ahead of their child’s birth. The Royal College of Midwives have also offered to produce new guidance to their members on how to better engage dads before, during and after the birth of a child.

Grandparents & grandchildren were the guests of the three Ministers, Rt Hon Harriet Harman QC MP, Rt Hon Ed Balls MP, and Rt Hon Yvette Cooper MP on 7th December at Lancaster House, London. The Deputy PM thanked Lynn Chesterman, CE of the Grandparents Association, at the event held to celebrate the role of grandparents.

View images from the event.

13.11.09 - Grandparent' Association seeks Policy and Resources Manager Working for children The Grandparents' Association is the fastest growing membership organisation for grandparents in the country. We are seeking to appoint a Policy & Resources Manager on 17.5 hrs pw £27,000 p.a. (pro-rata). The post holder will work as part of the Senior Management Team, be responsible for raising funds in line with our agreed fundraising strategy and developing internal policies as appropriate. Proven fundraising skills are essential. This post can be based with in London or Essex.
For further information & job description please contact Louise Baker at The Grandparents’ Association on 01279 428040 or alternatively email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for details. Closing date: 13th November 2009.

28 October 2009 - Press Release - Grandparents' Association is part of a newly-formed consortium to building an online service focused on helping and supporting Grandparents. Grandparents' Association is one of three partners behind BeGrand.net - a website that launches in January 2010 and is designed to provide information and an online community for Grandparents.

* The site is currently funded by the DCSF as part of the Parent Know How project - which focuses on finding innovative ways to support families.  In the long term, the project will be commercially self-supporting. 

* You can find out lots more about BeGrand.net via its blog where you can also sign up for the newsletter that will let you know when the site launches.