Pensioner Parenting, Kinship Care and Special Guardianship.
SOPHIA CANNON, Barrister, Tooks Court Chambers,
Grandparents have no legal presumptions in law to care or to have contact with their grandchildren. In a previous article,
The Children Act 1989 at its heart has the parent family and from that parental rights and responsibility. Recent statutory amendments in the Children and Adoption Act 2002 have recognised that parental care can be delivered by non-parents just as effectively or in some cases, better then that what would have been delivered by the parents themselves.
It is to the extent that new forms of parenting have come into existence, some of which recognised in law, namely: special guardianship, kinship care and the colloquial term of “pensioner parenting”.
The idea that cross-generational and intergenerational parenting is becoming more common sings from the facts. One in five children is looked after someone who is their parents’ parent: pensioner parenting. Yet their position is not either formally recognised or rewarded. What has happened to reflect this shift in society on legal frameworks to buttress these relationships?
Usually there is no court order to recognise or regulate the situation; equally, there is not any remuneration. Pensioner parents generally take the strain: without question. If there is an ongoing court care case or one to be commenced, what right does any grandparent have to interfere notwithstanding the fact that they naturally may be left to care? Equally, if the issue is contact with a much-loved grandchild, what rights does the grandparent have at all?
What are the grandparents’ new rights to have their grandchild living with them emotionally safely and financially securely? Here follows a legal guide to the new case law, the new statutes that have insured that in name alone, there are four new “rights” for this group of carers, their solicitors, and equally highlighting the local authority’s duties.
To assist the non-legal litigant in person grandparent: A right to be Heard, Assessed, Recompensed and for a Timetable.
Before the survey of these new rights, what makes special guardianship different from an adoption order or a residence order or long-term fostering under a care order?
The key difference is that Special Guardianship Orders are the cream of all three traditional orders. Those who become special guardians’ (“Specials”) have a new ripe legislative tree to pick rights from and in theory; the Act is plump with services attuned to the needs of the children who they look after.
As with adoption orders, the natural parents’ right to exercise their parental responsibility is altered. Unlike adoption, however, parental responsibility is not removed but it is curtailed by the special guardian. Again, as in adoption, the right of the Special to change the name of the child (section 14B(2)) is clear but it is not absolute and is subject to the sanction of the court, L (A Child) (2007) Times, April 11, 2007.
Like residence orders, specials can have a contact order made in favour of the natural parents. (Section 14 B (1) of the 1989 Act) The beneficiaries are the child whose parents who have been sidelined but not totally displaced by the making of the special guardianship order, and the parents themselves who would, under a traditional adoption order had their rights extinguished and their contact limited.
As in long-term fostering, if necessary, the special guardianship order is seen as a placement. This “residential placement” under a special guardianship order is assessed. Firstly, the assessment is for the needs of the child, secondly, for the delivery of services and thirdly for the means of the carer. The child’s needs in conjunction with the carers’ resources are globally reviewed and then supported by the local authority with finance, services until the child’s majority.
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