Grand plans – government launches new website for grandparents

As part of the battle to capture the public’s imagination before the election, Ed Balls announced this week “a new package of measures to support modern families in the 21st century”.

“Support for All – the Families and Relationships Green Paper’ sets out “how the Government can support all families, help to prevent and resolve marriage and relationship breakdown, support and recognise dads and grandparents, improve flexible working for families, and give more targeted support to families in need”. Goodness. Well, that sorts that, then.

What particularly drew my eye was the proposed launch of a new dedicated website for grandparents, ‘BeGrand’ which will “offer tips and advice on getting involved in their grandchildren’s lives, including online advisors, a directory of services and peer support”.

A quick google search brings up www.begrand.net. And what an odd fish this is, starting with the name. Not an obvious choice of name, I would have thought. Of course, the reason they could not use something with “grandparents” in the title is that there are already a number of good sites set up to give advice to grandparents, not least The Grandparents Association which is one of the partners to the project.

BeGrand is not as you might expect a hub for all government related information and agencies. The BeGrand site explains that it “provides information, advice and a welcoming community for grandparents. We have articles, factsheets, quizzes, surveys, resources, activities and helpful guides to making best use of the internet.”

The site is free to use and join and will “offer selected deals and partnerships with products and shops” which it seems will be used to fund the ongoing costs of the website.

So where is the government connection? Reading through the small print, we learn that the website received initial funding from the Parent Know How project, which is a project led by central government’s Department of Children, Schools and Families. So is this, then, the website promised by Ed Balls and if so, just how much input has the DCS&F had into its content? Particularly if the website is going to promote private sector products and services, I would suggest that this relationship needs to be clear.

The site does not officially launch until the end of the month and it looks like the content is still being finalised. It will be interesting to see how this project progresses.