it shows the great problem of social services not taking into account that keeping children within their extended family or with friends of their family, is usually better than adoption by strangers
Hmm. Plural of anecdote is not data, but I have worries about the thinking behind this comment. Most of my interactions with social services has shown them to be rather desperate to send children back to their extended family rather than keep them with foster carers or have them adopted. Their extended family often have many of the problems of their parents, and so they can be sent back to a life of violence and deprivation which can end with them returning to foster care in a few years anyway.
I know absolutely nothing about the case you mention, and I know that some of the best parents can have children wrestling with the problems of drug addiction or mental health problems, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if the grandparent's perceived unfitness to be primary carers has very little to do with their age.
As shown elsewhere in the thread, an obsession with blood links can be unhelpful.
no subject
Hmm. Plural of anecdote is not data, but I have worries about the thinking behind this comment. Most of my interactions with social services has shown them to be rather desperate to send children back to their extended family rather than keep them with foster carers or have them adopted. Their extended family often have many of the problems of their parents, and so they can be sent back to a life of violence and deprivation which can end with them returning to foster care in a few years anyway.
I know absolutely nothing about the case you mention, and I know that some of the best parents can have children wrestling with the problems of drug addiction or mental health problems, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if the grandparent's perceived unfitness to be primary carers has very little to do with their age.
As shown elsewhere in the thread, an obsession with blood links can be unhelpful.