MASSIVE PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR GRANDPARENT CARERS

NEW poll findings from YouGov commissioned by charities Grandparents Plus, The Family and Parenting Institute and Family Lives show huge support for better financial and practical help for grandparents raising children because their parents can't look after them.

74% of adults in the North of England think grandparents and other relatives bringing up a child should receive practical help from their local Council, and 63% think they should receive a financial allowance. This rises to 75% of adults who think grandparents should get a financial allowance if they are on a low income. 76% think they should receive similar support to foster carers.

Local grandmother Sandra Ingham from Leyland has been bringing up her grandson, now 16, for 12 years with no support from the local authority.  She says:- "We've really struggled to make sure my grandson can have the opportunities other children take for granted." Sandra has to manage on a low income and finds Christmas and birthdays especially difficult. "I used to borrow to buy him presents but found I couldn't pay the money back so now I sell jewellery instead."

When he first came to live with her he had behavioural problems and would go round the house slamming doors, but he soon settled down. "Now he's 16, I'm so proud that he's a good lad. He's going to college and doesn't hang round street corners."

Sandra has 2 other grandsons in foster care 30 miles away.   "We used to have weekly contact and I struggled to find things to do with the three boys with little money. The boys in foster care were well provided for but would have major tantrums and even wrecked my house. Two years ago social services said they would give me a small allowance to help with the cost of contact but it never happened. The days for contact instead of being a pleasure became so stressful."

Charity Grandparents Plus is campaigning for better support for grandparents and other relatives bringing up children when parents cannot look after them, for example because a parent has died or is seriously ill, or because they are misusing drugs or alcohol.

Grandparents Plus own research shows that just 33% of family members who are bringing up a child because their parents can't look after them get financial assistance from their Council, and 68% of carers who asked their Council for help still don't get the support they need.

Sam Smethers, Grandparents Plus chief executive says:- "It's great that people in the North West are backing grandparent carers. They are already treated as second class carers because they are not entitled to similar support to foster carers or to parental leave when they take on care of children. We're calling on local authorities to give kinship carers like Sandra, and the children they are raising, the support they need. All too often kinship carers are left to bring up vulnerable children without any financial or practical help from their Council.  It is time for local authorities and central government to recognise and support the vital role kinship carers play in keeping children out of care because it is both better for children and more cost-effective for the taxpayer."

In the UK there are an estimated 200,000 kinship carers – grandparents and other family members -bringing up between 200,000 and 300,000 children because parents cannot look after them. Research shows that a high proportion experience poverty, isolation and lack of support.