MEMBERS of a Worcestershire support group will be attending an event at Westminster to raise awareness of the plight of children who are estranged from their grandparents.

Nine members of the Worcestershire Grandparents Support Group are travelling to London to attend the Broken Bonds discussion at Westminster Hall on Wednesday September 4.

The afternoon event seeks to explore the plight of grandchildren estranged from their grandparents, a problem that is estimated to affect at least 1million children in the UK.

Speakers will include Dame Esther Rantzen, Nigel Huddleston, MP for Mid-Worcestershire, celebrity lawyer Vanessa Lloyd Platt, and Dr Matthew Offord, MP for Hendon.

Mr Huddleston said: "Every child should have the right to access to their wider family, especially their birth grandparents, unless there is a clear evidential reason to keep them apart to protect the child."

The Worcestershire Grandparents Support Group is a self-help organisation, started in March 2017, for grandparents denied access to their grandchildren.

Members meet once every two months in Worcester city centre, and any grandparent from anywhere is welcome to attend. Email worcsgsg@gmail.com or call 07413197336 for more information.

A spokesman for the group said: "As this is a subject that many find difficult to talk about, one of our aims is to help non-contact grandparents feel less alone with their problem. Although last year the EU Court of Justice ruled that grandchildren and grandparents have the right of contact, unfortunately this ruling is not currently upheld in the UK."