Guardianship

The law in most common law countries is to make the child or children wards of court. The court will then supervise arrangements for their immediate care, which could mean a state-run institution, a charitable home, or foster parents.

The court will then ask for applications from people who may be interested in taking on the legal guardianship of the children, or seek to place the children with close relatives. It will consider applications, probably interview the applicants, and then award one of them the right to the children.

This process obviously takes time, and the children may well be in the care of their close families if they reside nearby. But if there is no family, or even if there is and there is some doubt about the competence or suitable accommodation of the relatives, then the state has the legal right and indeed obligation, to keep the children in a place of safety.

Having a deed of temporary or permanent guardianship is especially important as godparents have no legal status, although most people choose them thinking they would like to bring up the children if circumstances took them away. The deed of appointment of a guardian MUST be made in a legal document, as nothing else will guarantee that the preferred guardians of the children will be appointed as the parents would wish!

If both sets of grandparents apply to be granted guardianship, there is the possibility of a major family rift if they cannot agree. The legal rights are actually with the father’s family if the couple is married! Whichever way the court decides, it will not award the children to either set of grandparents whereby a conflict is occurring. At the end of the process, the two sets of grandparents will be at loggerheads and that is an unpleasant situation, which will benefit nobody, least of all the children.

Families overseas who are isolated from their normal extended family support group are particularly at risk if things go wrong.