Shared Parental Leave and Parental Leave – what do you think and know? Chance to win £100! NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

As part of the Mumsnet Family Friendly Programme we'd love to know what you think about these new employee benefits which have been introduced in the last few years.

You can read about them below - please share on this thread your experience of them and your thoughts on them. Have you taken them up? Do you think you would? Have you heard of Parental Leave? How do you think employers feel about them? Has your employer promoted them to you/ employees? Has your partners company promoted them?

All comments welcome!

Shared Parental Leave - this is for new parents and is designed to give greater flexibility around the first year with a new baby
Government info here
ACAS guide here

Parental Leave - this is unpaid leave for parents to take care of a child's welfare - employees are entitled to 18 weeks’ leave for each child and adopted child, up to their 18th birthday with their job protected
Government info here
ACAS guide here

Both are obviously subject to specific terms.

Add your view and you'll be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £100 voucher for the store of their choice.

Click here to learn more about companies who are working to make the UK a more family friendly place

Thanks and good luck
MNHQ

Standard Insight T&C apply

[drspouse]

It may however be beneficial for same sex couples, particularly fathers as I am guessing that previously they would only be entitled to two weeks paternity leave.

Two dads who have a baby through surrogacy would get either nothing (same under old and new arrangements) though you are right that if one of them was the biological father and they were co-parenting with a friend then that dad could probably get this SPL.

That would apply if they were named on the birth certificate with the surrogate. If they weren't named, or if they were going to jointly adopt the baby rather than co-parent with the surrogate, they wouldn't get any leave (in my understanding - you get leave for an unrelated adoption but I think a surrogate adoption counts like a step-parent adoption for leave purposes).

Two dads who have a child through adoption could now split the leave but this isn't a change that just affects same sex couples - all adopters can now do SPL.

[MummyBtothree]

Each to their own. Everyone is different and every family is different. Whatever suits best!.

[darceybussell]

Surely businesses will have to provide the same terms for men as for women as that would be discriminatory? Do some businesses not provide the same then?

I think it's brilliant, I earn a lot more than what my DH earns and he also gets much better terms than me so for us it would be a no brainier.

[drspouse]

Surely businesses will have to provide the same terms for men as for women as that would be discriminatory? Do some businesses not provide the same then?

They've provided different terms for adopters and mothers for quite some time and it's never been illegal so I don't think there's any requirement to do so. Shared Parental Pay is something different to either Adoption Pay or Maternity Pay and Shared Parental Pay can be given to women (either as secondary adopters or at the end if they swap back).

So in practice most ShPP will be taken by men but in theory it could all be taken by men, almost all by women, or 50/50.

But the other issue is that employers that have a very large majority of male employees will be more likely to have poor maternity provision as they've never really sought to attract women OR women see the maternity provision and run. So even if all employers copy the maternity pay, men could be more likely to be with an employer with poor maternity pay.

[darceybussell]

'So even if all employers copy the maternity pay, men could be more likely to be with an employer with poor maternity pay.'

That's a good point, I hadn't thought of that.

It's a real shame, I really do think part of the problem is the social stigma of men taking the leave and women feeling like they ought to take it all, which is daft given that it's 2016 but people still do feel like that.

[NotCitrus]

The parental leave might help DP cover some of the summer holidays without being fired, but it's unpaid so unlikely to use more than a week of it (makes financial sense to send both kids to day camp instead!)

Does the right to "time off for family and dependents" to cover emergencies include pay, or is it unpaid? If DP could cover some of the childcare when I'm ill rather than our army of paid babysitters, that would be helpful for the kids in giving them continuity.

Until senior management rate their teams on how many staff work non-full-time or flexibly in other ways, part-timers will continue to be perceived as a hassle. The only jobs I've worked in that were supportive of parents and part-time workers were ones where qualified staff were like gold dust and almost everyone there worked 1-2 days a week, many with other businesses or retirement the rest of the time. being there 3 days a week in the office meant I was valued as continuity, rather than just seen as a pain!

[fish88]

My son is 2 and a half years old and I am a teacher. I haven't had to use much parental leave, just the odd day when poorly so can't comment too much.

However, I had 6 months maternity leave and then my partner had 6 months additional paternity leave. This worked out brilliantly for us as I was the higher earner and couldn't afford to have more than 6 months off. It meant we didn't have to use any paid childcare until he was 1 year old. My son has a great bond with both his parents and we both have an appreciation of the realities of working vs. being at home with the children. I am currently pregnant again and we will do similar with this baby.

My partner works for a giant multinational company and at the time his HR department knew nothing about the entitlement for paternity leave. It took them quite a while to look into it and find the right paperwork, etc. that needed to be completed.

[tapismagique]

I hadn't heard of parental leave before. Shared Parental Leave is obviously a fantastic idea and my partner and I both agree we'd like to do that - I'll take the first 6 months, then my partner will have 5. We work in the same field but at different places -- our institutions have the same parental leave and pay policy which makes it easy to organise. It will be good to have my full salary (which is higher than my husband's) while he is in the nil pay phase. But more importantly, and as other people have said, it lets us put equal parenting into practice right from the start.

[mumsbe]

Its great that it is possible to share prental leave. This would not work for us but I think it is great to have the option.

[forkhandles4candles]

Both good initiatives. I have not been in a position to use them. I had not heard of parental leave. Looks very good, though I hope I never have to use it.

[SaltySeaBird]

We really wanted to do shared parental leave with DS who is 2 weeks old but can't afford to.

Women at DH's workplace get 6 months full pay. On the SPL scheme he gets statutory only. Unless men and women are offered the same benefits then there isn't going to be much uptake.

I wanted to take 3 months followed by him taking 6 months off but we can't afford for him to be on the low statutory rate of pay. If he could access the maternity rights his employers offer it would have been fantastic.

[SaltySeaBird]

If I tried to access parental leave I'd lose my job. Legal protection is all very well on paper but means nothing in reality. The cost of taking employers to tribunal and accessing legal advice is too high.

[eastmidswarwicknightnanny]

I think its tricky if one parenbt gets occupational maternity/paternity pay obviously they would take the full enhanced period of time off which could limit the time the other parent could take off.

Also some mothers on returning to work want to reduce hrs n negotiate flexible working however if partner will be off 6mths on little to no income they will more than likely go back full time will it then be as easy to negotiate that reduced hrs or flexible working.

[jaffajiffy]

DH has just gone back to work after shared parental leave for dc2, which we did concurrently. He looked after dc1 while I did the baby. His employer was ok about it though didn't top up, so it was a financial stretch. The concept is straightforward but getting two companies to end up with the same computations of what was annual leave, wjat was paternity leave, what was maternity leave, and what was shared parental leave, etc required a lot of patience and meetings with HR.

I feel strongly that more needs to be done to equalise parenting responsibility and stop what is often a huge career impact for women. Offer leave that only fathers can use. Make it an equal risk that a woman or a man might be off raising a baby!

[KeepOnPlodding]

I know a number of women at work that have taken parental leave, it's well-managed and seen as being a very 'family friendly' policy. It seems to be a good option for those that are paid fairly well (and can therefore afford to take unpaid leave) but where regular p/t work isn't really an option.

For men, less so. I don't know whether it's a salary issue. In my workplace there would be no raised eyebrows should a man request parental leave (nor should there be) but it is rarely requested.

[firsttimemum15]

Shared parental leave is a great idea in principle but as a mother I wanted to take the maximum maternity leave. If we did shared parental leave my partner would've recieved statutory parental leave pay which wouldn't have made financial sense and I would've had to return to work earlier.
I don't think enough people are aware of shared parental leave or how it works. The government website is full of lots of jargon about it too which doesn't help.

[BertieBotts]

I think it's silly to object on the basis that stigma still applies. In Germany where I live this arrangement has been in place for longer and the trends are changing. Most dads take at least some time off, and a fair few split leave half and half. It's a good thing. Everyone I've spoken to who has done it finds that their partner is more understanding of the role and it brings hem closer as well as making them feel like more of a team with regard to the childcare.

[WowOoo]

We wouldn't be able to afford to take unpaid leave, but it's good if the option is there. Also, I'm not sure my husband could take so much leave. One of us had to leave work for a time and it was me.

I know of some families where flexibility like this would have been great.

[MrsMarigold]

good idea in theory but it wouldn't work for us DH is self-employed (a barrister) and earns far more than I do so there is a big disparity in our incomes, it makes better sense for me to be at home with the children, also he has worked hard to build up his practice whereas I can dip in and out more easily - freelance journo.

[RedToothBrush]

Nice in principle.

Shared parental leave works if
a) your partner earns a similar amount or less.
b) you don't breastfeed or switch to bottle feeding earlier.
c) your partner gets fully paid leave or a deal that matches what you would get. `<br />
DH would have loved it, but it wasn't an option. Plus DS would have been an issue if DH had taken it too. He was a bottle refuser after initially taking them. And to be blunt about it, I'd have really struggled under those circumstances to go back to work at 6 months whilst bottle feeding was an issue and before DS was weaned.

Its good it is being supported by government, but it isn't a magic solution and there are lots of other cultural changes and support that are needed in order to support both mothers and fathers.

For example I'd like to know how small businesses are going to be given the financial support by government to extend the option to their employees. Its one thing to say as the government you support the idea, quite another to really mean you support it as an option for everyone.

[Wjjkl]

I think both are a positive step forward.

I think shared parental leave promotes a healthy, modern approach, although I do feel that it my take employers some time to catch up and as others have said, the economics of it aren't always possible in reality.

Parental leave is useful and certainly something I would take advantage of should the need arise.

[geekaMaxima]

I'm still waiting for someone to explain why they think SPL is incompatible with breastfeeding. It really isn't.

[BertieBotts]

Yes I don't think it's incompatible at all. Plenty of people go back to work at 6 months and breastfeed. Also the US has better breastfeeding rates than we do and yet most mothers there get about three months maternity leave, if that! I wouldn't want to go to that kind of system, but I don't see SPL as being a loss of women's maternity leave.

I can totally see that not everyone would want to go back at 6 months and breastfeeding might be a part of that, but to suggest that it's impossible is silly.

[unadulterateddad]

I like the idea of both, however the real issue is the level of pay that is paid during the period - I work for a company that has a generous leave policy but only the first two weeks of paternity leave are paid at full salary.

There was no way I could afford to take an extra leave allowance at a lower salary, so had to limit myself to the two weeks plus the holiday that I'd saved. Until it is realised that we need more time allowed on full pay, there will be little change.