Grandparents — how to reinstate access to grandchildren through the courts

Our family law team represented the paternal grandparents of three young children where contact had been stopped by the children’s parents.

The grandparents wanted our advice on how to reinstate contact, while (if possible) preserving their relationship with the father (their son) and his partner.

Here, Katie Coleman explains how we gained a court order that ensured our clients were able to maintain a relationship with their beloved grandchildren following conflict in the family.

Falling out with the parents

When our clients approached us, they were distraught — having recently fallen out with their son and his partner, who they’d previously been very close with. 

Our clients were devastated that after the fallout, their son and his partner had decided to stop allowing them to see their grandchildren. Wider family members also became unwillingly involved in the dispute and were told not to show any photographs of the grandchildren to their grandparents, which had a negative effect on the family as a whole. 

Before the fallout, our clients had cared for their grandchildren over multiple days each week while their son and his partner worked. They shared a very close relationship with the children. They had regularly enjoyed taking their grandchildren for days out and to spent time with their aunts, uncles and cousins. 

The sudden end to contact with their grandchildren was very upsetting to our clients, who were worried about the effect that this would have on their grandchildren. 

Grandparents’ legal rights

While grandparents don’t have an automatic right to see their grandchildren in England and Wales, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t circumstances where a court would order contact between a child and their grandparents (even if their parents don’t consent). 

Where one or both parents of a child oppose that child having contact with their grandparents, the first step for the grandparents is to seek to reach an agreement with the parents informally.

This is exactly what we did in this case. We wrote a letter on behalf of our clients to their son and his partner to explain why they believed it was in the children’s best interests to continue having a relationship with them and to seek to resolve the dispute generally. 

We invited the parents of the children to attend mediation with our clients to decide how contact should be reinstated. Unfortunately, in this case it quickly became apparent that the dispute was incapable of resolution. The parents of the children weren’t prepared to consider allowing contact to resume. 

Child Arrangements Order

At that stage, we advised our clients to issue an application to the Family Court to seek a Child Arrangements Order. As grandparents don’t usually have parental responsibility for their grandchildren, the first step is often applying to the Court for permission to apply for a Child Arrangements Order. 

When considering whether to grant permission, the court will consider a number of factors, including the grandparents’ relationship with the grandchild, the nature of the application and whether contact with the grandparents would be detrimental to the child in any way.

In this case, permission was granted. The Court then considered our client’s application. 

A Child Arrangements Order determines who children shall live and spend time with. When considering such applications, the court will refer to the Welfare Checklist to make its decision. The decision will be based on what’s in the best interests of the child (or children) involved.

Unsupervised contact

We successfully set out our clients’ case that it was in their grandchildren’s best interests to continue having a relationship with them. We duly made proposals as to how the contact should recommence on behalf of our clients. There were two hearings to attend and we instructed a barrister to represent our clients at those hearings. We also attended to support our clients. 

The result of our application was that the court made a Child Arrangements Order that provided for our clients to have regular, unsupervised contact with their grandchildren during weekends and weekly video calls so that they could keep in touch during the week. 

Our clients were overjoyed with the outcome. They finally had the legal protection of a Court Order that secured their grandchildren’s relationship with them after a difficult period of time, providing peace of mind. They were also able to resume their days out, which meant a lot to the family. 

We were glad to be able to resolve matters in this case as promptly as possible, minimising the time during which our clients hadn’t been able to see their grandchildren.

Talk to us

If you’ve suffered from a family fallout that has affected your relationship with your grandchildren, please get in touch. 

It’s better to do this sooner rather than later to understand your options and start taking steps to resolve matters as soon as possible. This may help to mitigate the time during which your grandchildren’s relationship with you is prevented. 

We understand how difficult wider family disputes can be. That’s why we always handle them in a sensitive and supportive manner, while seeking to reduce unnecessary conflict where possible. 

If you need assistance to gain access to your grandchildren, our award-winning family law team can help. Talk to us by completing our contact form below.

Please note that we've altered some details within this case study to respect our client’s confidentiality.