Jean Stogdon was born in New Southgate, London on 22 July 1928, the daughter of Percy, a capstan fitter for Standard Telephones and Cables, and Mary (née Ellis) Sangster.
[2] She followed a successful career in social work, becoming area head in the London Borough of Camden with a staff of 200 by the time of her retirement in 1988.
Stogdon had been active in the design of Camden's child-protection services, and acted as a court-appointed children's guardian in the ten years after retiring from social work.
As a result of her research, Stogdon became convinced that grandparents and other extended family members should be the preferred choice as providers of care and protection to children whose parents cannot do so themselves.
[4] Young died the following year; Stogdon championed the charity's aims without her co-founder and whilst also caring for her husband, who was now deaf following a bout of meningitis.
[1] Amongst other successes Stogdon was influential in persuading the UK government to include grandparents' access rights to grandchildren following the divorce or separation of their parents in the Children and Young Persons Act 2008.
The charity has put grandparents on the policy and practice agenda and is driving forward change to secure significant recognition and support for kinship carers.