any healthcare professionals taken new parental leave ?

[motherearth]

Has anyone that works for the nhs taken this new parental leave, and if so what was your managers response.My collegues are not at all happy ???

my dh took a week, the first consultant to do so in his trust! remind your colleagues that its unpaid and your manager that its the law

Hi motherearth - colleagues of mine are takng parental leave at the moment. Within our hospital trust 4 weeks per child will be paid and it is being phased in. One paid week till the end of march, 2 weeks next year then 4 weeks the next.
It is a oncept that some will have difficulty with ie. those who have children that are over 14yrs and those who have no children at all.
That is their problem though and you should not be influenced by it. Their working patterns should not be affected. I have to say though that it has not been well thought out in terms of financial cost to the Trust. Managers will be happier once they understand that they will not be penalised for the extra cost of covering leave in their areas.

we both work in the same Trust, and have decided to "bank" our parental leave until dd is older; we may need time off to cover school holidays etc. Yes, older colleaugues are cheesed off, but as mears says, it's their problem. Enjoy it! You won't get many perks in the NHS, whatever you do!