 Grandparents Deserve Better When Divorce Means No Access to Grandchildren
 Lyn Ellins The rights of grandparents are being overlooked in divorce settlements - and that UK law needs to change to give them greater access to their grandchildren.
Lyn Ellins, a family law specialist with solicitors, Charles Lucas & Marshall, says the firm is seeing increasing numbers of grandparents having to resort to legal action to ensure very basic visiting rights with estranged grandchildren.
"Too many grandparents are simply being airbrushed out of children's lives," says Lyn Ellins. "This is often at a time when children desperately need the security of stable, adult relationships."
A recent survey by the Grandparents' Association estimated that four out of ten children lose contact with their grandparents following a divorce - with the majority mostly on the father's side.
"Mothers sometimes choose to punish their ex-partner by preventing relationships between their child and their partner's parents," says Lyn Ellins. "There is often very little a grandparent can do because, understandably, they are loathe to fight for contact via the courts."
One Swindon grandmother who did decide to fight for access to her grand-daughter, Beth, was Lorraine Jack. Lorraine and her husband, Bob, had played a pivotal role in the care of Beth up until the age of four with Beth staying at their home almost every weekend.
Beth's mother then decided she wanted the arrangement to end and the couple have been embroiled in a four year struggle to obtain visiting rights to their granddaughter.
They now see her for a few hours every four or five weeks.
"It has been extremely difficult," says Lorraine. "As grandparents we have so few rights. We are simply bystanders caught in the middle of a very sad situation which the children themselves don't understand."
Lyn Ellins, who is Lorraine and Bob's solicitor, says the case shows how little the courts can do to help estranged grandparents - even when they have played a leading role in caring for a child.
"Grandparents deserve contact arrangements of their own and recognition of their vital role," she says.
"As a country we are very happy for grandparents to pick up the pieces if relationships go wrong but when circumstances change and they are denied access to their grandchildren, we are very slow to help them."
For more information contact Lyn Ellins on 01793 511055 or lyn.ellins@clmlaw.co.uk
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