More and more grandparents are playing a vital role in helping their own children get back to work. Emily Flanagan reports

THE Government is considering revolutionary plans to pay grandmothers to look after grandchildren and get single mothers into work. But for many families, having the next generation ease the burden of child-minding is the only solution to juggling children and work.

Christine Robinson, 54, and her daughter-in-law Samantha Robinson both split their time equally between working at the same Darlington hotel and looking after Samantha's four-year-old daughter, Hannah.

It is an ideal solution to the nationwide problem of trying to get the world of work to coincide with timetables at nurseries and schools.

Christine, from Northallerton, says: "I look after my granddaughter three days a week while her mother works part-time. Her mum takes her to nursery and playgroup, then I pick her up and then I have her until Hannah's mum collects her from my house. It works out very well. A lot of children would be lost without their grandparents, who are becoming like part-time mothers."

This situation is by no means unique. A recent survey showed that one in three grandparents spends at least 21 hours every week looking after grandchildren.

Work and Pensions Secretary Alistair Darling is looking at the idea of paying grandparents and other relatives for this vital role, in a bid to tackle a worrying lack of childcare in deprived areas and getting single mothers back into work.

Nottinghamshire County Council has been successfully running such a scheme for the last ten years, by handing out childcare vouchers which parents can use to pay registered childminders, nurseries or close family relatives.

Retired grandmother Margaret Pattison, from Darlington, would welcome such a move. She looks after three-year-old Lauren Pattison, about four days a week and Lauren's brother Josh, five, during holidays when their parents are working.

She said: "My daughter-in-law would struggle if I couldn't do this. She works part-time because she wants to look after them as much as she can, but that means she can't afford a childminder. Without someone to look after her children, she couldn't work at all, so it's catch 22.

"But I love them to bits. I can wave bye-bye to them at tea-time and not be woken up during the night."