More Than Grandparents

More than Grandparents supports kinship families. This is usually but not limited to grandparents who are raising their grandchildren because they cannot live with their birth parents. There is no statutory responsibility for local authorities to support kinship families and therefore they are usually denied support from children’s social care. This means that they are often left struggling to cope with their child’s trauma, struggling to cope with their children’s extremely challenging behaviour, struggling to manage very difficult relationships with birth parents, struggling to supervise contact between the parent and the child, struggling financially and struggling to manage their own life limiting health conditions. Kinship carers also often have other caring responsibilities such as caring for a sick or elderly partner or parent or caring for other grandchildren whilst their parents are at work. Many are struggling to raise children on their pensions and often those who are of working age are forced by authorities to give up work to care for the children and those who do continue to work often find that this is unmanageable because of the complex needs of their children.

More than Grandparents supports Kinship carers by offering 1-1 support, advice and guidance on a range of issue such as care proceedings, financial entitlements, housing, contact arrangements, children’s behaviour etc. We work in partnership with numerous community organisations and we are able to sign post refer on to them as appropriate.  We also offer opportunities for peer support bringing carers together for mutual support which reduces feelings of isolation and loneliness, promoting positive mental wellbeing. We offer training on a range of issues such as trauma, children’s behaviour, first aid, volunteering etc. In addition, we arrange social events, bringing families together and recreational activities which gives carers the opportunity to learn a new skill and take part in diversionary activity giving them a little respite from the complex daily lives. We also offer opportunities for short term respite through relaxation sessions and pamper sessions giving the carer feelings of vitality and self-worth, self-confidence and self-esteem, building resilience that reduces feelings of overwhelm so they can continue caring for their children, reducing the risk of the children being returned to the care system. We also offer opportunities for group residential breaks for kinship families, bringing them together to encourage comradery, thus building a support network and again giving them much needed respite from their daily complex lives. We also support carers with complaints to the local authority when they feel things have not been done correctly or they have been denied financial support that they were entitled to.

In addition to supporting Kinship carers we also support the children by providing activities aimed at fostering and improving attachments between the carers and the child which helps to diminish some of the challenging behaviours we see in kinship children. We provide outings, recreational activities and social events which allows the children to come together with other kinship children to reduce feelings of difference, isolation and loneliness thus promoting positive metal wellbeing and giving them some enjoyment as we recognise that some children have limited experiences because of the financial constraints of their carers or the carers physical health.

Above all else we go above and beyond for our families to help keep children with their birth family, keep them out of the care system and to give them hope for the future.