Developing a dialogue between grandparent kinship carers and Children’s Services in Sunderland
by Sue Robson,
Kinship Carer

Just over two years ago when I approached Sunderland’s Carer’s Centre, it was like opening a floodgate.  At last I found someone to talk to who had experienced something similar to what I was going through.

My grandson was three months old and I’d looked after him full time from his birth due to his mum’s drug and alcohol abuse. At the time, I experienced all kinds of emotions; joy at having a new grandchild, deep sadness that one of my daughters was unable to be a full time mum and the loss of my own independence that I felt I had only just gained (my youngest daughter was nearing adulthood.)

Kate was assigned as my mentor at the Carers Centre.  She had raised her grandson fulltime since he was four – he was now 16. Her daughter, although now well on the road to recovery, had been through shockingly parallel circumstances to my daughter.

I felt extremely powerless – particularly in relation to the involvement of Social Services.  I was ill-informed about the hasty decisions and choices my family had to make. What astounded Kate was how little things had changed since she’d been in the same position fourteen years ago. There was a complete lack of local support and information for grandparents in our position.

Kate and I put together an ‘action research plan’ , designed to seek out and empower others in our position and to establish a support and campaigning network called More than Grandparents Sunderland. Our focus was on grandparents caring for grandchildren full time due to their birth parents’ substance misuse.

The first meeting of More than Grandparents was in November 2010. It was a blizzard outside and we didn’t think anyone would show up.  But they did and the meetings have grown in popularity since.

By the time the Government introduced its Friends and Family Carers Guidance and the requirement for local policies in April 2011, we had already completed our needs assessment and had meetings organised with the Head of Safeguarding and others from City of Sunderland Children’s Services.

In a relatively short space of time, and during a period when the local authority has faced spending cuts, we’ve achieved a great deal.  We’ve undertaken research on the challenges facing kinship carers; agreed the recommendations of the research and drafted a joint action plan; submitted a partnership bid to the Department of Education for Keeping Foster and Kinship Carers Safe and Supported (KEEP) and set up focus groups to inform the development of Sunderland Friends and Family Carer Policy.

Most importantly of all, Grandparent kinship carers in Sunderland are beginning to feel empowered, more confident and better informed.

On 13^th June 2011, Grandparents Plus provided the opportunity to share our experience at a North East Conference. Kate and I were delighted to deliver our presentation alongside Meg Boustead the Head of Safeguarding in Sunderland. But it was a little disappointing to hear that others in the room were not using the requirement for Local Friends and Family Carer Policies as a tool to establish a dialogue between kinship carers and Children’s Services. We hope that by sharing our experience we have encouraged others to do this.

Welfare reform – making it fairer for family carers

by Kate Green,
Labour MP for Stretford and Urmston

The Conservative-led government’s welfare reform bill is proceeding through parliament, and the final stages will take place in the House of Commons next week, before it transfers to the House of Lords. I’ve been working on the bill since its introduction in March, and I’m horrified at what’s being proposed.

The government says it wants to simplify the benefits system and make work pay. There’s nothing wrong with those ambitions, but this bill, and the new universal credit being proposed to replace many benefits and tax credits, certainly won’t achieve those goals. There will be less money to help pay for childcare when parents go out to work. The government’s got no idea what will happen to free school meals in future. Cuts to financial help with housing costs will leave many families struggling to pay the rent.

But this bill is particularly mean because groups who deserve extra support will instead be treated especially harshly in future. One group that’s set to lose out are family members and friends who care for children when a parent’s unable or unwilling to do so – surely a group who deserve our respect and gratitude, not the grief the government’s plans will cause.

In future, more people will be forced to prepare for work as a condition of receiving benefit .  But when a child comes to be cared for by a family member or friend, it’s often as a result of difficult or stressful circumstances, and they may want their new carer to be available to spend more time at home with them. It’s really important that carers have time to be around them to settle them into their new home .

That’s why I’ve tabled an amendment to the bill that I hope we’ll debate in parliament next week, to exempt family and friends carers from having to look for work for a year when a child first comes to stay.

I’m also very disturbed that the government’s planning to cap the maximum amount of benefits a family can claim – no matter how many people are in the household. This is not just totally illogical, it’s really unfair to family and friends carers, who by definition will see their household grow when they take a child into their home. I’m very angry that the government will penalise families trying to help out.

It’s not just unfair. It’s also stupid. Family and friends save the country millions of pounds by avoiding children having to go into local authority care. Now families and friends will be more reluctant  to take a child into their home, and more arrangements will break down. More children will go into local authority care as a result – costing the taxpayer more.

We still have time to try to get the government to think again, to back up their warm words by changing their bill. So please contact your MP this weekend to ask them to attend the debate next week, and to speak out for fairer treatment for families and friends who care.

What does family friendly Britain really mean?

Sam Smethers,
Chief Executive, Grandparents Plus

Welcome to the Grandparents Plus blog. This is the first of what will become a regular feature on our website. And you won’t just be hearing directly from us. We’ll be inviting guest bloggers to join us on the site to comment on a wide range of issues affecting families.

Now you probably aren’t wondering what I have in common with Barack Obama, but I will tell you anyway. We were both brought up by our grandparents. In 2008 he broke off from the election campaign to visit his dying grandmother, describing her as one of the ‘quiet heroes’ of American society. We have at least 200,000 quiet heroes of our own in the UK, who are raising children who would otherwise be in the care system.

When a child arrives at their door, they have probably experienced a family tragedy or crisis. Often parental alcohol or substance misuse, or abuse or neglect: sometimes bereavement or domestic violence, parental imprisonment or mental ill health. Most carers in this situation are under 65. Almost 6 out of 10 (57%) will either give up work or reduce their paid hours when they take on the care of a child. When a woman goes on maternity leave, she can take up to a year off. When someone adopts a child, they too are entitled to generous adoption leave. Rightly so, both are adjusting to new children in their family’s lives. But a grandparent who steps in to care for a child has no such entitlement.

In their Consultation on Modern Workplaces the Government has recently proposed new arrangements for transferable parental leave, allowing parents to share leave between them, recognising that dads get a bit of a raw deal with just 2 weeks paternity leave. But on leave entitlements the consultation stops there and doesn’t think about grandparents and other family carers. We want to see family and friends carers entitled to paid leave, similar to adoption leave.

We also want to see parents given the option of transferring their unused leave to a grandparent if that is what they want to do. Our EU research has found that it happens in Hungary and Germany already, so why not here? We’re going to be looking further at grandparenting and family policy across the EU over the next 18 months because our ageing population and the role of grandparents in family life is an issue right across Europe, not only here in the UK.

One thing the government is getting right is its proposal to extend the right to request flexible working to all. This is something we and many others have called for and will significantly benefit older workers, particularly grandparents who are juggling work and care. Despite the Prime Minister’s stated aspiration to make Britain the ‘most family friendly country in the world’ we have a very long way to go. Any definition of ‘family friendly’ must include grandparents and the wider family too. So come on Mr Cameron, if you don’t agree with me, just ask President Obama.