How are your parents booking their shared parental leave?
In a report by Working Families the determination is that despite concerns over disruption to working patterns four out of five employees are taking their shared parental leave in one continuous block.
It was also noted that employers still have concerns regarding the acceptance of fathers taking leave and also the complexities of shared parental leave.
Figures from their report shows that:
Take up is somewhere between 0.5 – 2% of all eligible partners butAround 70% of those responding expect to see an increase to the take-up in the future.67% of those responding also intend to review their shared parental leave policy over the coming year as this regime becomes more established.What the report also found was that
A high proportion of employers 67% of their respondents support shared parental leave andThat 32% of employers are actually matching shared parental pay to their existing enhanced maternity pay.Sarah Jackson, Chief Executive of Working Families, said:
“We’re further than we should be from equality between men and women at work but this could be the beginnings of the culture change we need to empower and enable families to share care.
These results show that employers are committed to playing their part to make shared parental leave a real option for new families – the scheme would help even more families if fathers could take this leave from their first day in a new job, just like mothers can.
Employers told us that some new mothers aren’t sure about ‘giving up’ some of their maternity leave: which is why we need a proper period of paid time off especially for fathers.”
Comment
The main obstacle to overcome is a change in culture and attitude towards fathers/partners taking leave to care for their children.
