Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Sponsored threads

This topic is for sponsored discussions. If you'd like to run one with us, please email [email protected].

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

MNHQ

Shared Parental Leave: share your views and you could win £300! NOW CLOSED

354 replies

AnnMumsnet · 17/03/2015 09:06

Parents with children due or adopted from 5 April will be among the first to take advantage of Shared Parental Leave. To coincide with its introduction Shared Parental Leave, we have been asked by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills to find out what you think about this new policy for parents.

The team there say "From April 2015, parents will have greater choice and flexibility over how they share the care of their child in the first year of their life. Shared Parental Leave allows working couples share up to 50 weeks of leave and 37 weeks of pay in a way that suits their work and family needs. For example, parents can take time off together or they can tag team, stopping and starting leave and returning to work in between if they wish.
Check your eligibility and how much pay you can get here. We'd love to know what you think about this and how you'd use it for your family."

So, please have a look at the information provided here and let us know on this thread what you think. If you or your partner is pregnant and your baby is due from 5 April do you think you'll use it? Would you have used it when you had your last child if it had been an option? Do you think you will share leave with your partner if you have children in the future? How would it work in your family?

Have a look at the video:

Add your comment by 30 March 2015 at 9am and you'll be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher for the store of your choice (from a list). Insight T&Cs apply

Thanks and good luck
MNHQ

OP posts:
kirstycooper01 · 29/03/2015 20:10

Both my partner and I are self-employed so this does not help us whatsoever but I think it's a great idea for people in 'normal' employment as it will save in some childcare costs and if taken at the same time , it gives valuable time to bond as a family

missabc123 · 29/03/2015 20:14

great idea; it's not always the mother who wants to take a longer break from work.

ColdCottage · 29/03/2015 20:42

It won't make a woman an equal to a man as a potential employee or make it financially flexible regardless of who is at home until the law goes further to make it truly equal.

TiggersAngel7774 · 29/03/2015 21:14

Brillant.
As a mum that had bad PND i would of loved to of gone to work if my husband could of claim parental leave to re -assert my own ID and self confidence.

Smoosh · 29/03/2015 21:34

I think it's a great idea and I'm sure we'll be utilising it in the future.

Elledouble · 29/03/2015 21:44

My partner and I are planning to use it - I finish work on Friday as our baby is due in four weeks, and he's having two months after I have my six. I'm the higher earner out of the two of us and really, we should have arranged for him to have more, but I know that if one of us is going to drop hours or become a SAHP it probably won't be me, so I wanted some time to be main carer to our baby. I think it's a brilliant thing, why shouldn't dads have the opportunity to take time off with their kids?

mrsvgs · 29/03/2015 21:45

My husband and I will definitely be taking advantage. I am due in September and will take 6 months, at which point he will take 3 further months. This means we don't have to put the baby into childcare until they are a little older, and also gives him the opportunity to really bond with our baby. We are so thrilled to have this opportunity and whilst it will stretch us financially to be on essentially one salary for 9 months, it was a no brainer for us!

GatoradeMeBitch · 29/03/2015 21:56

I think it's great. Our family is complete, so we won't be able to take advantage of it, but we definitely would have. It's a positive move for families and the work place. Men get more bonding time with their children, women's careers are less affected, and employers will perhaps start to complain less about working parents when fathers are also entitles to take time off to raise their children. It's a step forward.

YonicScrewdriver · 29/03/2015 22:06

"t won't make a woman an equal to a man as a potential employee or make it financially flexible regardless of who is at home until the law goes further to make it truly equal."

In what way, CC?

baconbap · 29/03/2015 22:26

it's a great idea

Gilla01 · 29/03/2015 22:29

Rather late for me now, but has it been thought out prperly from the employers point of view?

YonicScrewdriver · 29/03/2015 22:37

I'm sure it was widely consulted on Gilla - what would worry you in particular from their POV?

FrenchieMum2Be · 29/03/2015 22:40

It's about time! However from the my husband's point of view I don't think his company would be ready to let him go for a few months of parental leave... Even if it's the law!

JassyRadlett · 29/03/2015 22:45

Worth remembering that there has been a form of shared parental leave since 2011, and this one was widely consulted on.

Why would men taking part of the parental leave be any worse from an employer's perspective - given the result would be neutral overall in terms of time out of the workplace (max of 12 months leave per child)? Are men honestly more valuable employees than women? I know we tend to pay them more for the same job, but still...

Unless they have been discriminating against women of childbearing age of course...

lucyrobinson · 29/03/2015 23:01

Not suitable as our family is now complete. Not sure we would have used it. I think my partner was happy to go back to work and let me get into a routine with our baby. That said he worked local and was home by 5 most nights.

fazkin · 29/03/2015 23:05

I love the idea. It gives flexibility to suit all family type

YonicScrewdriver · 29/03/2015 23:08

Jassy, I can see how splitting APL into blocks might make it harder for some employers to take on cover - but could make it easier for others to use existing staff to cover work for a month or two when it would be difficult to do so for six months, say.

JassyRadlett · 29/03/2015 23:15

That's true, Yonic - though as you say, probably swings and roundabouts.

I think I've just read too many comments sections with comments about how it will be terrible for businesses with men being able to take time off with a strong undercurrent of 'how are we going to avoid hiring people who might take leave when their kids are born if the men are going to do it too!'

Which might have made me a teeny bit oversensitive.

Tonkatol · 29/03/2015 23:40

I think it is a huge step forward and would work really well in some situations. Personally, I would never chosen to have my husband take the leave whilst our children were young. I may be old fashioned, but my husband and I chose to manage with me working part-time hours whilst our children were young - neither of us earn huge wages and so it would not have been cost effective for us to both work as the cost of childcare would have been too hug. With all four of our children, my husband had two weeks paternity leave and that was it. To be honest, when the 3rd and 4th were born, my husband took one week of leave and then spent the next two weeks working part time (mornings only), spreading his leave over three weeks but I knew most of the time he wouldn't do a huge amount whilst I concentrated on the baby, so it worked better for him to go off to work in the morning and then come home and prepare lunch and take older children to the park.

tubbyj · 30/03/2015 00:05

It's a good idea, how much it will be used is another matter.

wingobins · 30/03/2015 01:16

I wish this was introduced when I had my first child who was 2 weeks overdue and a complicated birth. Unfortunately my husband only had another day left when we came out of hospital before going back to work. It must be difficult for men to have to leave their newborns too and watch their partners bond more because they are at work most of the day. It takes two to make a baby so it's only fair it should be shared leave.

fluffyblueberry · 30/03/2015 10:45

I think for many parents, it will be brilliant. For me, it probably wouldn't have helped that much because I was breastfeeding and I wouldn't have wanted to return to work before my baby was 1. However, it would have been nice if my husband had had a bit of extra time off, but we wouldn't have been able to afford him to have that much longer off if there was a drop in wages. I'm sure there are plenty of cases where it would be really helpful though -- also, in cases where one partner earns considerably more than the other, it might make sense for the lower earner to be home.

ElizaW922 · 30/03/2015 11:08

Sounds like a good idea, as long as it's a mutual decision and there is no pressure on either side. Parents should feel relaxed and do what is right for them.

MNHQ
AnnMumsnet · 30/03/2015 11:37

Thanks for all the comments: Am pleased to say DinoRAUR wins the £300 voucher

OP posts:
chriskeenan86 · 30/03/2015 12:12

It seems like a good idea. As a father I would've loved to have taken slightly more time off. Can see it being quite complicated though.