Current Petitions

The next petition is PE1051, by Jimmy Deuchars, on behalf of Grandparents Apart Self-Help Group Scotland, calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Executive to make the charter for grandchildren legally binding to ensure that all public agencies and families recognise the rights of children and that those rights are enforced by law.We have papers on the petition and I ask for views on how to deal with it.

There was consultation on the strategy in December 2006. The position is that the Scottish Government is committed to publishing a strategy on fostering and kinship care. However, it is still to be published.

There is no clarity about the timescale.

I am relaxed about it: that is not an unreasonable request. It is a difficult matter, however. From what we have seen from the papers, the petitioners are committed to resolving the issues. We all know from our own case loads that there are anomalies for grandparents who have had to intervene and look after or access their grandchildren, mainly because of their sons' or daughters' addictions. The children might then be lost to them once the relationship changes, or when one of the partners decides to take the children away. The grandparents might not have any rights, even if they were, de facto, the principal carers. The petitioners are anxious about the matter, which is worth exploring. We have discussed kinship care in Parliament, which also needs to be addressed.

Will we wait until we get clarity on the kinship care strategy and whether there are any issues that could be of benefit to the petition?Members indicated agreement.