Laws For The Minority Are Costing The Public Purse A Fortune.

PRLog (Press Release) – Oct 01, 2007 – When couples split up the resident parent is backed by the law.  It becomes irrelevant whether the other parent was a good parent or if the extended family is close and loved.  The child's world can be turned upside down by adult quarrels and our law in its one sidedness encourages that conflict and allows the child to be used as a weapon.  The prolonged and expensive fight for the child to be allowed continued contact is expensive and damaging and very often unnecessary. The resident parent backed by the power of the law, calls all the shots. If there is no violence then there is absolutely no reason for the laws interference. There are already laws in place that will prevent contact when violence is an issue, as there should be.

This fight to prevent children continuing contact with familiar and loved family members is costing billions of public money in never ending free legal aid to create a legal fortress around the resident parent and child. “In the best interests of the children” is the reason quoted but there is evidence that it is not in the child's best interest to be cut off from loving relatives.

Social services have adopted cost as their priority not the children’s interests. When they pay out huge bonuses for reaching fast adoption targets it is a dead cert corners will be cut by social workers to earn their bonuses.

Get them in, (snatch them if it is quicker)
Get them processed, (alienate the family to make them more attractive to adopters)
Get them adopted, (without the families consent, it’s faster)
Get the judges or sheriffs to help by giving them wrong information.
*Bingo*. A big celebration tonight with the bonuses earned?

Instead of cutting corners in the care of children, there can be huge savings in using the army of grandparents out there who would be only too delighted to help their grandchildren. That would cost a fraction of the social services huge expenditure and a huge amount of stress, fear and worry for the child.

Mediation is an excellent tool but must have the chance to prove it.  What incentive is there for a resident parent to attend mediation when they have it all their own way as it is and have been known to make up evidence because they know it will be blindly accepted? The governments will not change the very law that makes it impossible and is obstructing ‘Getting families together’ (our motto by the way)

Laws should be made fairer to work in the children’s best interest instead of the interests of social services or the resident parent and new partner.

The knock-on expense because of the present family laws is made up as follows.

(Grandparents) The treatment of grandparents who suffer from depression and all sorts of illnesses (81% of grandparents do) due to unnecessary loss of contact with their grandchildren through no fault of their own also comes out of the public purse. To add insult to injury there is not even enough done for grandparents who do suffer because the governments will not fund it adequately?

(Fathers) a fortune is lost in non payment of maintenance fees due to the resentment caused by injustice is leaving the public purse to pick up the bill for the children’s care. When you have done no wrong injustice leads to anger and frustration leading to demonstrations, climbing public buildings, tying themselves to railings etc. the policing of these things and secret investigations also comes out of the public purse.                                                                                                  

(CHILDREN) are the real loser out of all this. The cost to children of the unjust loss of a parent or grandparents is incalculable. If the resident parent is on drugs or alcohol, which is rising at a tremendous rate, they can suffer terrible abuse which could be avoided if contact with other family members was maintained.  When a child is taken into care it costs an unnecessary fortune which need not be so when the father or grandparents are available but because of the stupid unjust laws grandparents are irrelevant persons in their grandchildren’s lives and they can be ignored.

The Charter for Grandchildren must be made legal to increase its effectiveness.  The Parenting Agreement needs to be automatically completed when couples split up as it focuses on the child’s welfare.  Solicitors need to be encouraged to use this tool to help parents work for the
best interest of the children.

Ends

Jimmy Deuchars & June Loudoun,
Grandparents Apart Self Help Group Scotland
22 Alness Crescent
Glasgow G52 1PJ
0141 882 5658
http://www.grandparentsapart.co.uk



Grandparents Apart Self Help Group Scotland is a Scottish Registered Charity. Non political, non profit making, staffed with volunteers.
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