The following article can be found in Family Law Week.

Julie Stather, barrister, of 42 Bedford Row suggests some ways to benefit children by strengthening the position of grandparents

Society is constantly evolving. Grandparents used to be very central figures in the lives of their grandchildren often living on the same street. Then as families became more mobile and the cities provided more possibility of employment, grandparents seemed to fade into the background. Now society, as with fashion, has come full circle and grandparents are once again at the forefront of many family units. The briefing paper Grandparents providing childcare produced in November 2011 by June Statham at the Childhood Wellbeing Research Centre identifies that grandparents provide the main form of child care for 35% of families where the mother was working or studying when the child was nine months old. Further, figures used by the charity Grandparents Plus identify that there are currently 300,000 kinship carers in the UK. This article will consider whether the law and current ‘on the ground’ practices are keeping pace with the changing role of grandparents in society, or whether in fact we have some catching up to do.

For the full articles go to http://www.familylawweek.co.uk/site.aspx?i=ed101994