A new poll conducted by Survation on behalf of charity Grandparents Plus has found that one in four (25%) mothers would be most likely to give up work if they didn’t have grandparents to help with childcare, while more than a third (38%) would reduce their working hours.

The poll comes ahead of the school summer holidays where 54% of parents said that they would rely on grandparents for childcare, while 42% said that they would rely on some form of paid childcare, including holiday clubs, during the summer holidays.

The poll also found that:

• Over half (58%) of parents would most want a grandparent to care for their children if they or their partner could not.
• Almost two thirds (62%) of people support the possibility of grandparents being able to request unpaid leave to help with childcare, including 70% of parents.
• A third (32%) of respondents would most likely turn to their mum if there was a problem in their family which they needed help with. This compares to just 14% who would turn to their dad.

Full tables are available here.

Survation interviewed 1,017 UK adults aged 18+ via the telephone, of which 249 were parents of a child under 18, between 28th – 30th June 2017. Survation is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.