A new study has found that the vital role grandparents play in supporting families and caring for grandchildren is often taken for granted.

Grandparents feel pressured to take on more childcare responsibilities than they want, according to a new study.

The problem for some grandparents was particularly acute when their daughter or daughter-in-law had to work, researchers found. "Most are prepared to help when needed, but some are adamant that they also want time for themselves," says Lynda Clarke, lead researcher of the study carried out by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine's Centre for Population Studies.

The research, Grandparenthood: its meaning and its contribution to older people's lives, found that grandparents played a vital role in supporting families - particularly in the event of family breakdown, where they provided practical, emotional and sometimes financial support.

This was despite the fact that today's grandparents are likely to be young. "A third of the under-60s we interviewed were working, yet 18 per cent of this group were providing childcare three or more times a week," says Clarke.

Jean Stogdon, chair of the charity Grandparents Plus, says grandparents provided billions of pounds worth of childcare a year. "Once they stop work, it can be difficult to say no," she says.

She believes that Government policy needs to pay more attention to the role grandparents play in supporting families.

The study also found a gender bias. Although researchers were surprised by how much grandfathers were involved in the lives of their grandchildren, they found that grandparents were much less likely to see their son's children than their daughter's children.

Grandfathers were just as likely to see their grandchildren as grandmothers, but only if they were living with their wife, the child's grandmother.

FACT BOX

- Step-children enjoy fewer visits from step-grandparents

- Grandparents are more likely to visit younger grandchildren

- Children over 10 are less likely to see their grandparents on a weekly

basis

- www.shef.ac.uk/uni/projects/gop/index.htm

- www.grandparentsplus.org.uk.