Equal Parental Leave for Fathers: Reform UK statutory Paternity leave Policies

[HennioLima]

We want the Government to introduce equal statutory parental leave for fathers, matching statutory maternity leave duration. We think this would ensure fathers can fully support their partners during recovery, bond with their children, and promote equality in caregiving and workplace rights.

We think current statutory paternity leave of two weeks is inadequate, especially when partners require longer recovery periods, such as after Caesarean sections. Fathers play a key role in caregiving and household responsibilities but we feel have to return to work prematurely, which may create emotional and financial strain. We think equal parental leave would promote family well-being, reduce gender inequality, and ensure fathers can bond with their children and support their partners effectively.

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Equal Parental Leave for Fathers: Reform UK statutory Paternity leave Policies

Are you insane?

I don't agree fathers should have the right to take 12 months off!

That's a big leap from '2 weeks isn't long enough' to 'they should have equal to mothers'

I mean two weeks is definitely too short but 52 weeks? Do fathers also carry a child for 9 months and give birth, and therefore also require the same amount of time to physically and mentally heal from that?

The vast majority of women don't need 52 weeks to recover from childbirth, it is largely used to bond with the child and I do believe men need a longer parental leave to also have time to bond with their child.

I think at least 6 months, use it or lose it.

I wrote to my MP last week about the appalling UK paternity leave, and got this back;

Thank you for reaching out with your concerns regarding Maternity and Paternity Pay.

If in power the Liberal Democrats would commit to increasing paternity pay to 90% of earnings. Additionally, we would introduce a new "use-it-or-lose-it" dad month, encouraging more fathers to take parental leave. This initiative aims to provide families with greater choice and support new fathers in spending crucial time with their newborns, thereby helping mothers to continue their careers.

Currently, the low rates of statutory maternity and paternity pay do not offer parents a genuine choice. The UK's provision of only two weeks of statutory paternity leave falls short compared to most advanced economies. Furthermore, around a quarter of fathers are ineligible for paternity pay, either due to self-employment or insufficient continuous employment with their current employer. This situation needs improvement.

My Liberal Democrat colleagues and I are dedicated to advocating for a fair deal for fathers during those vital first months. We believe that enhancing paternity pay and leave will benefit families and society as a whole.

I’d definitely support a month for new dads at 90# pay.

Are fathers recovering from pregnancy or childbirth? Do they breast feed? What would they need 12 months at home with the baby they didn’t grow or birth and can’t feed?

In norway the father gets 2 weeks when the baby is born, and the mother gets 6 weeks exclusive to recover from the birth

After that the rest is it's up to the parents who stays at home as long as the dad gets a minimum of 12 (I think, it has varied between 10-13) weeks

That seems fair enough - most parents have the dad taking the last 12 weeks but I do know some people who each worked part time splitting it after the 6 weeks were up

It's worked well, fathers have a time to bond on their own with the baby and it definitely balances the work place.

The scheme is built on with good child care making it possible for both parents to work as the father only gets 2 weeks if the mum doesn't work at all before birth ie only has state maternity pay

As men can father more children than a woman can birth this (which I doubt will happen) would make women more attractive to employers.

Am I the only person that would have been driven mad with DH on leave at the same time as me for 52 weeks?! Anyway currently my salary is topped up to 100% for 26 weeks, if the same had to be done for Fathers I doubt this would happen and we would probably end up worse off.

Some big firms are moving to 4-6months for paternity leave (on full pay) and it was so nice for those Dads in our NCT group to have that time with the baby. They tended to use some of it at the start to help with the recovery and then some later on (eg when baby is 6months). They really enjoyed the time and i think it helped to balance parenting duties more evenly as well.

DH got statutory pat leave and DD1 wasn't even discharged from NICU / SCBU when his paternity leave ended. Whilst the new Neonatal Leave and Pay bill would have helped him a little, having say 2-4months paternity leave would have given him so much more bonding time once we were discharged and home.

I agree pat leave should be longer, but who is going to finance this? Are you willing to pay a higher rate of tax to subsidise the SMP to both parents? Plus I doubt many families could afford to survive on the significantly reduced income of two parents as SMP tails off. Lastly, as a PP above said, I can't imagine spending all day, every day with my DH for 12 months - that's a level of codependency that isn't healthy!

God no.

So women who don’t breast feed should return to work as soon as they’re recovered, as there is zero other reason for leave?

I take it the father's would get the same entitlement to SMP, not sure many families could live off £370 a month 2 lots of SMP would give you.

Shared parental leave can ensure fathers (or female partners to the mother) can take more that the statutory 2 weeks leave. I know many teacher colleagues who’ve had babies recently and their DPs have had significant time off with SPL.
However, anything that could diminish the amount of leave a mother can get is not a good thing. Mothers could end up being forced to return to work too soon whilst their DPs take time off.

When I fell pregnant with my second the midwives kept referencing the small age gap and how my body was out of condition etc because even if it goes smoothly it takes up to 2 years for a woman to recover from pregnancy and childbirth. They recommend avoiding pregnancy until 18 months postpartum for this reason. I don't think we have a particularly small gap (23 months so I got pregnant at 14 months postpartum) and it definitely influenced the care I received.

Yes I think men should get longer, some employers already offer men enhanced paternity benefits. Many men I know don't take it but take annual leave instead because stat pat pay is too much of an income drop.

Men don’t need equal rights to women in this arena. Nor did they want said rights until women fought for them, for themselves.

I agree men should get more paid leave but I don't think it should equal maternity leave and I don’t think it should all be leave that can be shared. I think it's really important for mothers to have a good chunk of leave that's their own - for recovery, bonding, breastfeeding - and which they can't be asked to transfer to their partner.

Absolutely. C suites will become more equal when men take the same time off for family care as women. Companies would just have to suck it up if is the norm for anyone to take the time off. Signed and shared.

This isn’t thought through at all and it sounds like a way just to get time off. If people are in a stable relationship and want to support there as ways round this, using holiday, taking unpaid parental leave, building on some money before to allow you to take unpaid time. Not saying it’s easy or couldn’t be better but people have to take responsibility for themselves rather than expecting someone else to pay all the time. How does if work if feckless men have multiple children with multiple women just to get time off work and do nothing to,support the mother or child. There are enough feckless men abandoning children anyway we really don’t need to be doing anything to encourage them to procreate more

My maternity leave is full pay for 26 weeks and my partner also gets full pay for 26 weeks of shared parental leave. That means we can both split the 52 weeks and not have to sacrifice any pay. That seems great to us, but we won't be off at the same time!

No.

It’s time to bond with their new child, one of the reasons why women get maternity leave.

We shouldn’t be denying good fathers the chance to have some time with their new child just because some fathers are shit.

I said quite clearly that growing birthing and breast feeding a baby were not things men did with their bodies. Women who don’t breast feed do not have to provide all the calories their child needs for every feed, just as women who give birth vaginally will not have recover from c sections. All these things will rather obviously impact recovery times for women, and not for men.