Grandparent Contact

In recent years, there has been some publicity about prospective changes to the law to protect the rights of grandparents (and other extended family) to have contact with children.  This originates from a recent debate in Parliament in which MPs shared experiences of their constituents, including of grandparents accused of harassment and visited by the police after sending birthday cards and Christmas gifts to their grandchildren.

The issue of access rights for grandparents was last examined as part of the Independent Family Justice Review in 2011.

The Best Interests of the Child

However, the law is in place already to protect the relationships that children can have with extended paternal family.  There is no ‘presumption of grandparent contact’.  Under the Children Act contact is a right of children, not a right of the person with whom they are having co