Hardly any dads have used shared parental leave since scheme was introduced 10 years ago, research finds

The other thing that happens when fathers are home is it provides an opportunity for parents to learn how to do things together. The Better Life Lab released a report on men who do care and one of their findings was that not knowing how to provide care was one of the biggest barriers to fathers being more involved.

I would have loved to take more than two weeks off with my kids, but the reality is we just couldn’t afford it. As the main breadwinner, cutting my income down to statutory pay after two weeks would have meant struggling to pay the mortgage. Shared Parental Leave only works if both parents’ employers offer generous pay, which isn’t the case for mos... See more

However, the scheme operates on the basis that mothers must ‘transfer’ their leave entitlement to the father or partner. The transferrable nature of SPL means that, if a mother wants to use most or all of her maternity leave entitlement, there is little or no leave available to the father/second parent – another added complexity to SPL.

For employers, managers, and leaders.

As decision-makers, you have the power to push for policies that allow all new parents to take parental leave — and the power to initiate the cultural shift necessary to encourage men to take advantage of parental leave entitlements. Take parental leave yourself, tell others about your brain training, and set an... See more

“The strict eligibility criteria do not help either. Both parents must be continuously employed by their employer for 41 weeks before their child’s birth. There is also an income threshold. Combined, these two factors shut a lot of families out.”

“Even if you are eligible and meet all the criteria, SPL can be hard to organise and arrange. It require... See more