The Conservative Government in the United Kingdom has extended its policy for parental leave to include working grandparents, starting in October 2015. The 50 weeks of leave and 37 weeks of statutory parental pay can now be shared across generations.
The policy change was instituted following government research which indicated that more than half of mothers in the UK rely on grandparents in order to return to work. Currently 60% of working grandparents provide some form of care and a total of 2 million have chosen to work less, take unpaid time off work or leave work entirely to provide care.
