A COUPLE claim their grandaughter has been taken away by social services because they are too old to look after her.

The couple, from Shoebury, started looking after the threeyear- old girl when her mother was hospitalised with depression.

The doting grandparents were first told to give the girl up for fostering, but now, just six months after her mother was taken ill, Southend Council's social services department has put the girl up for adoption.

The devastated grandparents claim they were told it was because they are too old to look after her.

The grandfather of the girl said: “We looked after her well and she was quite happy.

“She knows us well and has spent a lot of time with us.

“A week later a social worker came round saying she’d come to pick up her clothes because they were taking her into foster care.

We didn’t know what was going on, but they’d applied for a court order with a view to adoption.

They asked my daughter to sign the form in hospital. It meant they could get a court order to take her.

”I think she was just resigned to it all and signed it.”

The grandparents tried to fight in the courts, but were unable to afford legal representation, estimated at £15,000.

The grandfather added: “She’s a beautiful little girl and we’re absolutely gutted. She won’t be adopted until the autumn, so we are trying to get the decision reversed. She should be with the family she knows.”

The girl's grandmother added: “I don’t feel old at all. I work two days a week. It’s just awful they could take her away from us.

“She is being well looked after by her foster parents, but she is always so happy to see us and last time she said ‘I love you nanny’. That really got to me.”

As the adoption decision is being appealed by the grandparents, we have chosen not to identify the family involved.

They are now receiving legal support from Karina Chetwynd, of John Copland and Son in Sheerness, Kent, who is waiving her fees for the initial stages of the court proceedings.

She said: “The grandparents had no legal representation. It shows what can happen to grandparents and needs to be put out there.”

Southend Council would not comment on the specifics of the case, but Anne Jones, Southend councillor responsible for children and learning, denied the couple were too old to look after the girl.

She said: “While we cannot comment upon individual cases, we should highlight that age is not the deciding factor in our assessments of prospective carers.

“We have a duty to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the children in our care and to act decisively in the child’s best interests.

“This often involves intervening in complex family issues and taking tough decisions on behalf of the child. We work with partner agencies and consider all evidence available to us as to the history and capability of prospective carers and their suitability to raise children.

“Though placing children in the care of relatives is our preference in all cases, we can only do so when this is consistent with the welfare of a child.

“In all our work, our ultimate aim is to provide a caring, stable and permanent home for all children in our care.”

- The Echo has withheld some details from this story for legal reasons