In the last few weeks the government has finally published its draft regulations to govern situations in which parents are to receive shared parental pay and to share parental leave. The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills has indicated that the changes are intended to take effect for those children born after 5 April 2015 and have asked that employers and other stakeholders review and provide feedback on the proposed regulations.
The basic aim of the regulations is to rectify the situation in which the majority of leave after the birth of a child is available to the mother, meaning that the burden of childcare remains with the mother. When these regulations come into force it should, in theory, be far simpler for a mother to return to work whilst her partner remains at home taking care of the newborn and benefitting from the mother’s parental leave and pay.
The regulations are due to come into force from October this year and employers will have a fairly short period of time in which to prepare new internal policies and procedures to cope with the change, given that the regulations will apply to all those children born after 5 April the following year. The regulations are part of a raft of secondary legislation designed to achieve a rethink of the current maternity and paternity regime in the UK, supporting the Children and Families Act once it receives Royal Assent.
Essentially, the new regulations will allow two parents to share up to 50 weeks of parental leave between them, rather than the majority of the leave being available as maternity leave. The leave can be taken in one continuous block and parents can also opt to take the leave in a number of different blocks – however, if an employer doesn’t agree to the leave being taken in separate blocks then the employee cannot insist on it and can be forced to take it continuously. Maternity leave can be cut short by a mother as long as at least eight weeks notice is provided to the employer and a mother can make up to three requests to share their maternity leave with their partner – i.e. they can change their mind about it up to three times. In terms of qualification for parental leave, at the moment it seems that the requirement is 26 weeks service – after that point an employee can make an application to share their maternity leave with their partner.
According to the government the leave has been designed to “encourage more fathers and partners to play a greater caring role, enable both parents to retain a strong link with the labour market and allow employers and employees greater flexibility in how work and family commitments are balanced.” It has been met with mixed responses, with particular concerns being expressed with respect to the amount of support likely to be provided to employers when trying to implement procedures for their own business that facilitate the new rules. However, despite the anticipated teething troubles, the hope is that the new regime will give women with children more opportunity to continue or advance in a career without having to compromise on having a family.