A few months ago, I blogged about the Conservative’s intention to establish a “fair deal for grandparents” when it came to custody and care hearings. I pointed out that whilst it was all well and good to put grandparents “at the front of the queue” when it came to placing children in care, making sure these pensioners could actually cope once they were there was a more fundamental issue.

Now, not to be outdone on family friendly policies,  Labour have come up with their own grandparent agenda – stating they will remove the legal requirement on grandparents to  seek leave from the courts before they can apply for contact with their grandchildren. They have also launched “BeGrand”, a website providing advice and guidance for grandparents on their rights and role in children’s lives. 

But it’s not surprising that this has received a luke-warm response from the grandparents rights lobby. Because when it comes to the crunch of looking after children following a family break up, both the Conservatives and Labour have missed the point: it’s not more information gran needs – it’s cold, hard cash. Oh and maybe some training and respite support. In other words, the same as what foster carers get.

There are around 200,000 children being raised by relatives, often grandparents, in this country. The vast majority receive no support – either financial or otherwise – from local authorities and social workers. Whilst formal foster carers receive fees and allowances, training, social worker visits and respite to support them with the challenges of their role, grandparents – who are older and poorer than foster carers on average – usually get nothing. 

So whilst the Conservatives and the Government argue over who has the more “family friendly” policies by giving grandparents improved legal rights, the real vote-winning coup will be by the party who announces parity of support between family and foster carers.

The Government’s family Green Paper only vaguely hints at the possibility – announcing they will “consult on revised National Minimum Standards for Fostering Service Providers to make clearer how fostering services should recognise and support family and friends who are approved as foster carers”. These carefully chosen words are a million miles away from direct action, like that taken last year by the Scottish Government which passed legislation to ensure family were considered first for care placements, and consistent and equal financial support, training and respite was provided for kinship and foster carers alike. The result has been a 15 per cent increase in the number of kinship carers looking after children in Scotland.

Both the Conservatives and the government have called grandparents “unsung heroes” in the past few months. But being “sung about” will be cold comfort to grandparents across the country struggling with the financial and health burden of providing care for their grandchildren, unless it is backed up with some real support. 

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