One million children are denied access to their grandparents. We need change.

Yesterday, I was honoured to speak to the Annual General Meeting of the Grandparents Association - a national charity based in Harlow.

You can see my speech below:

Good morning. I’d like to thank Lynn and Belinda for inviting me, and also to thank Louise in the Harlow Office who works incredibly hard behind the scenes, with the Grandparents Association staff, to make these events happen.

Last December I joined you outside Number 10 Downing Street, to hand in a petition with over 7,000 names, calling for children to have a right to “letterbox” access, with their grandparents.

This was a very small, but symbolic thing - especially in the run-up to Christmas - for the more than 14 million grandparents in the UK.

Sadly, across Britain today, up to ONE MILLION children are denied access to their grandparents.

I have only two brief points to make:

First, as you will have guessed, I am on your side and have been working to support the Grandparents Association in Parliament.
Second, the work of the Association is incredibly important, because it is helping to creating a society that strengthens and protects the family. I've tried to make a song and dance about your campaigns, especially the “letterbox” campaign at Christmas. I’ve done this with speeches in Parliament about the Grandparents Association last year, as well as raising the matter in Parliamentary motions, and questions to Ministers. As a backbench MP, you can't force the Government to do something. But you can campaign and try to get problems like this on the Government's radar.

I was delighted to discover that the Grandparents Association was based in Harlow - especially because it is an active charity, paid for by its members and grassroots fundraising.

And it is starting to get results. Government Ministers are now looking at these issues - for example in last year’s Family Justice Review, there was some movement towards more equal access rights for both parents. This is a step forward. Because the logic of that policy suggests that those family rights should be extended to grandparents as well.

So why does this matter?

I’ve tried to be active, not just because the Grandparents Association has its headquarters in Harlow, but also because it is about strengthening the family.

When you look at the reports from the Centre for Social Justice, which was founded by Iain Duncan-Smith who is now the Welfare and Pensions Secretary, all the evidence says that families are the most powerful defence that we have against poverty, and social breakdown.

Grandparents are essential to that - and we forget them too often.

This is important, because every time a family falls apart the costs are immense.

The Families Matter Institute has published academic research, that puts the direct cost to the taxpayer of social breakdown at around £288 million pounds a week.

That is £11 every week, for every single UK taxpayer in the country. More than we spend on our Police service, and our courts and justice system combined.

Sadly, the picture is actually much worse than that. In addition to direct measurable costs, there also are the hidden costs of family breakdown, including Legal Aid, the running costs of the Child Support Agency and child psychology services. That’s before we even consider the long-term emotional impact on the children involved - costs that cannot easily be measured.

So anything - ANYTHING - that Grandparents can do to reduce some of that harm - is good, not just for their grandchildren but also for the country and the taxpayer.

A survey by the Mothers At Work charity found that six out of ten families use grandparents as child carers regularly through the year. The Grandparents Association estimate the value of this informal service at around £4 billion pounds a year. This is why access matters. Twenty percent of the grandparents in the same survey said there had been a marriage breakdown in their family, and as a result they were refused access to their grandchildren.

The evidence says that grandparents are not just a force for good - they are essential to family life. That is why the Government's policies to strengthen the family must include the older generations as well.

We can make all the rational arguments. But ultimately - and as the Government are now starting to recognise in the Family Justice Review - this is about the rights of children: to know who their family are, and to be able to spend time with them, or at the very least to get a card from them at Christmas.

It is a simple request.

I am proud to say, that the group which shouts the loudest for these children, is the Grandparents Association in Harlow. I will continue to do everything that I can to support you.


by Robert Halfon MP - Working Hard for Harlow.