31st January 2012 – Safer Internet Day 2012 with Kidscape and Grandparents Plus
During the week Saturday 4th February 2012 to Saturday 11th February 2012 Kidscape and Grandparents Plus are encouraging grandparents to talk to their grandchildren about internet safety and in particular for grandparents to consider if their grandchild is at risk when using the internet.
Complete our Safer Internet Day Survey now, download our Safe Tea discussion points and Safer Internet Day Leaflet.
You may find that your grandchild is very safety aware when “talking” to people on the internet; on the other hand you may be quite concerned at their lack of safety awareness. This is your opportunity to bring to their attention the risks they may be taking in relation to their online safety, integrity and welfare.
After talking to your grandchild we would like you to complete a simple questionnaire to enable us to evaluate internet safety. The questionnaire comprises of 5 questions and will take no more than three minutes to complete. One lucky person can win a £40 book token! You can complete the survey here
8th December 2011 – Grandparents Plus responds to proposals in the David Norgrove report
Grandparents Plus responds on BBC Breakfast to proposals in the David Norgrove’s report for the Family Justice Review on grandparents seeking a contact order to see their grandchildren. (Note that Sarah Wellard, our policy and research manager, is sitting on the left wearing a mauve jacket, despite the incorrect labelling on screen. The other interviewee, Joanne Edwards, is a lawyer and has no connection with Grandparents Plus.)
5th December 2011 – Grandparents Plus Doing it All? report highlights a future ‘care gap’
Grandparents Plus Doing it All? report highlights a future ‘care gap’ as the increase in the state pension age means grandparents who provide childcare are increasingly expected to stay in work. ITV Daybreak interviews grandmother with her daughter Jane and grandsons about the vital role her mother plays in providing childcare to enable Jane to work.
1st August 2011 – Too old to care? Report on BBC’s The One show
Following the launch of the Too old to care? report, BBC’s The One Show tell the story of Brian and Georgia and their struggle to get the support they need, and highlighting the importance and vital role of support organisations like S.A.N.C.T.U.A.R.Y provide to family and friends carers. To find a local support group in your area click here.
11 Apr 2011 – Recognition but still no rights for grandparents
Family justice review proposes grandparents should be included in contact agreements when relationships break down. Click here to read full article.
04 Feb 11 – ‘We look after the grandkids as our children aren’t capable’
BEING woken by a screaming baby in the middle of the night is tough for any parent. But it’s even more exhausting when you are over 60.
Yet this is the reality for the growing number of grandparents who are raising their children’s kids. A total of 140,000 youngsters have been left in the care of grandparents or friends because their own parents are unable to look after them. Drug and alcohol abuse are the main reasons for the growing trend, according to a shocking report by charity Grandparents Plus. Click here to read full article.
03 Feb 11 – Drink and drugs push grandparents into caring roles
Nearly half of all grandparent carers say parents’ alcoholism or drug addiction are the main reasons why they are bringing up children. Click here to read full article by Nursery World.
21 Jan 11 – Grandparent carers
Grandparents who are caring for disabled grandchildren will be hit badly by the spending cuts, according to one expert. Click here to read full article.
18 Jan 11 – Grandparent carers face tough challenges, reveals report by Family Fund
Most grandparents caring for disabled children are battling financial hardship and health problems of their own, according to the latest report from the Family Fund. The report, I Wish I Could Just Be Grandma, brings together findings from a survey of 324 grandparents looking after disabled children and studies of grandparent carers. Click here to read CYPN article.
Click link below to download report.
31 Oct 10 – Forgotten army of carers who need support as cuts hit home
It’s estimated there are about 200,000 family and friends carers raising 300,000 children in the UK. Many of them are grandparents who, at a time in life when they might be looking forward to retiring, are needed to step in and look after their grandchildren. Click here to read full article.
15 Oct 10 – Grandparents who care for youngsters to keep pension rights
Hundreds of thousands of middle-aged people who give up work to look after their grandchildren will have their right to a state pension protected in future. Click here to read full article.
06 Oct 10 – New Comment
Read Sam Smethers’ Guardian Comment is Free piece here - ‘the UK economy would grind to a halt if grandparents went on strike’.
15 Sep 10 – Help improve the benefits system
Directgov have recently published a YouTube video explaining how people can give their views on how to improve the benefits system. Watch the video Help improve the benefits system.
13 Jun 10 – Meet today’s truely great grandparents
One in three working mothers depends on grandparents for child care, according to the action group Grandparents Plus. ‘These mothers couldn’t be in a job without that contribution,’ says its chief executive Sam Smethers. They provide moral and financial support as well as vital child care. Yet modern grandparents have busy lives of their own, as Sally Williams reports for the Telegraph. Click here to read full article.
11 Jun 10 – BBC Radio 4 – Womens Hour with Sheila McClennon
Grandparenting in Europe – a new report from the pressure group Grandparents Plus. Does Britain have anything to learn from policies in other European countries that support grandparents as carers for their grandchildren and how would this fit with the new government’s ideology and spending cuts? Sheila McClennon talks to Sarah Wellard of Grandparents Plus and Professor Sarah Harper of the Oxford Centre for Ageing.
16 May 10 – Grandma has right to be paid
A local authority is about to take a child into care because their parents can no longer care for them. It could place this child with a foster carer, paying them a fostering allowance of at least £146 a week. Or – mindful of the statutory requirements of the Children Act 1989 – it could find a grandparent or other relative who could do this instead. It is probably better for the child to stay within their extended family. After all, that’s what most children want. So at the 11th hour (literally) it calls the grandparent and says: “Will you take this child because otherwise they will have to go into care?” With a proverbial gun to the head, the grandparent agrees. Then what? Click here to read full article.
03 Mar 10 – Grandparent carers
Grandparents in low-income families are risking financial hardship by giving up work to help look after grandchildren, according to charity Grandparents Plus. Click here to read and watch full story.
02 Mar 10 – Elderly ‘lose out to help children‘
Grandparents in low-income families are risking financial hardship by abandoning paid work to provide free childcare for their grandchildren, a report warned.Charity Grandparents Plus and the Equality and Human Rights Commission found that one in three families relies on grandparents to provide childcare on a weekly basis, rising to one in two among single parent households.
The groups said grandparents in the poorest families were coming under increasing pressure to look after grandchildren, with working class grandmothers who were still of working age the most likely to be providing free care. Click here to read full Channel 4 news report.
13 Feb 10 – Put social care above party squabbles
The costs of failing to act are simply too great to ignore…We welcome the political attention that social care is receiving. However, we are in danger of seeing this most important of debates become reduced to election soundbites and poster slogans.
Click here to read the joint comment in The Times Online.
20 Jan 10 – Grandparents to get greater rights over childcare
A comprehensive review of the family justice system will be announced today to give fathers and grandparents greater access to children after separation. Click here to read full article.
11 Jan 10 – Grandparents Rights
Currently one in three families depend on grandparents for childcare. And it’s likely that this figure will rise, with grandparents playing an increasingly important role in supporting young families. So is it time that grandparents were given better rights, and more official recognition of their role in society? And if so, what should this recognition consist of? Should their rights be supported by legislation and the courts, or are families best left to themselves to negotiate domestic arrangements?
Woman’s Hour debates issues affecting grandparents, to listen to the discussion click here.
09 Dec 09 – Carers caught in a club sandwich
A new report highlights the pressure on the growing number of families that have to care for both the very young and the very old. Official estimates claim that Britain has about six million unpaid carers – 10 per cent of the population. The IPPR study further reveals that almost one million people – 550,000 women and 400,000 men – have a dual role, caring for both children and elderly relations, with 62 per cent of female carers also going out to work.
Click here to read full article.
03 Dec 09 – Grandparents save parents over £5 billion in childcare
Sam Smethers, Chief Executive of national charity Grandparents Plus said: ‘We welcome this study because it reveals the huge contribution that grandparents make to family life day in, day out. We know that so many families depend on them. It is time for us to take this seriously and recognise the contribution they are making. Click here to read article.
10 Nov 09 – Who cares for the kinship carers?
Grandparents aren’t the only carers: a forgotten army of aunts and uncles are raising their relatives’ children. This month the Grandparents Plus charity lobbied Parliament with the message that while a family member is often best able to provide a loving home for a child who needs support, these surrogate parents deserve to have the financial and practical support that is available to foster parents, and in many cases they need it. One in three does not even receive child benefit.
No one knows how many more informal arrangements are made by families to care for children who would otherwise need local authority support. The cost of keeping a child in the care system is £40,000 a year. Aunts, uncles, older siblings and godparents do it for nothing, and provide a more stable life for the children they take in than the care system, says Sam Smethers, chief executive of Grandparents Plus.
Click here to read full article.
01 Nov 09 – Give grandma her due
According to a survey by Grandparents Plus, one in three grandparent carers is living on less than £200 a week. To read the Sunday Times article click here.
28 Oct 09 – Why more than a third of grandparent carers are living below the poverty line
There are thought to be 200,000 grandparents taking on the role as full-time carer for their grandchildren. A new survey by Grandparents Plus reveals that more than a third of them are living below the poverty line and struggling to cope, overlooked by children’s services, without respite care, emotional or financial support. Today Grandparents Plus will join forces with other members of the Kinship Care Alliance to lobby Parliament to call for greater recognition, respect and reward for family and friends carers. One grandmother tells Jenni about her struggles to care for her young grandsons. To discuss the wider issues Jenni is joined by Sam Smethers, Chief Executive of Grandparents Plus and Dawn Primarolo MP, Minister of State for Children, Young People and Families. Click here to hear full interview.
26 Oct 09 – Call to help ‘grandparent carers’ living below the poverty line
More than a third of grandparents who look after their grandchildren full-time to prevent them being taken into care live below the poverty line. Click here to read full article.
08 Sep 09 – My second mum and dad
A new generation of grandparents are closer than ever to their teenage grandchildren playing a critical role throughout their everyday lives, a unique survey published by national charity Grandparents Plus, reveals today.
‘We need to do more to recognise and value this relationship because it’s good for families and good for society’ Sam Smethers, Chief Exec, Grandparents Plus.
Click on links below to read the BBC articles.
22 Jun 09 – Grandparents Plus on BBC
22 Jun 09 – Are grandchildren making the working class poorer?
A report says working-class women tend to become grandparents earlier than middle-class ones, forcing them out of work earlier and reducing pension contributions. Click here to read full article.
22 Jun 09 – ‘The Poor Relation’ Report
ITN News report of ‘The Poor Relation’ Report. Click image to start video.
23 Mar 09 – Jackie Ashley on Grandparents
Guardian columnist addresses lack of recognition for grandparents. Read the article here.
09 Feb 09 – Grandparental Childcare
A new Institute of Education report claims that children cared for by grandparents are not as ‘school ready’ as those in day care. You can read Grandparents Plus’ response in full on the Guardian’s Comment is Free website here.
Related articles:
The Times 09 Feb 09 here
The Guardian 09 Feb 09 here
31 Jan 09 – Pensions Penalty
