Ageist Attitudes to UK Grandparent Carers From Local Authorities

Ageist attitudes abound when people in their late fifties and into their sixties are healthy, willing and able to take on the role of full time carer for their grandchildren only to be cast aside for the so-called permanency of younger adoptive parents.

Yet from 10 to 50 per cent of adoption placements break down - something that few people are aware of. Most importantly, it is grandparents who can keep families together and who can offer unlimited love, stability and devotion to their grandchildren.

Keeping children in their birth families and cared for by loving grandparents saves the government thousands each year with means tested allowances not even coming close to the astronomical cost of keeping children in care. The figures are astounding - there are approximately 25,000 grandparents over 65 raising 30,000 grandchildren in the UK because the parents are incapable due to, for example, alcohol and substance misuse or mental health problems. If these children were in independent foster care it would cost the government £1.4 billion in care costs each year.

However, those older grandparents faced with ageist attitudes from local authorities have, in order to obtain custody of their grandchildren, to face long legal battles and lack of support as well as, in many cases, financial hardship.

Families headed by grandparents often face financial difficulties but these grandparents are usually too afraid to seek help as they fear above all else that their beloved grandchildren will be taken away from them back into the care system and possible adoption.

Chief Executive of Grandparents Plus Sam Smethers said: "This research reveals the hidden contribution made by older grandparent carers. But it is worrying to discover that many who need support are too scared to ask for it and of those who do, most don’t get the help they need. There is a fundamental lack of trust in the system which needs to be addressed."

MS Smethers went on to say that in their research the organisation found a whole host of problems faced by grandparents seeking to care for their grandchildren, including poor quality assessments and care plans, and ageist assumptions about grandparents ability to take on the task of raising their grandchildren.

But, she concluded, grandparents do make good parents, offering their love and devotion together with the wealth of all their life experience, while crucially maintaining links with the wider family.

It is this which gives the children in their care a true sense of identity.

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