Shared Parental Leave

What are we talking about?

Shared Parental Leave (SPL) is a UK statutory allowance, introduced in April 2015, which gives mothers the flexibility to share their Maternity Leave with a partner.(1) This is coupled with Maternity Pay allowances, which become Shared Parental Pay (ShPP) if shared. The mother is still obliged to take a minimum of 2 weeks Maternity Leave post-birth, leaving the remaining 50 weeks of leave entitlement and 37 weeks of pay entitlement available for sharing. The rules around how it is shared are quite flexible, with each partner able to take up to 3 separate blocks of SPL, and overlap with each other if they wish. The same options exist for all scenarios of parenthood (surrogacy, adoption and fostering).

Of course, there are some conditions around it, and these are largely aligned with the conditions placed on Maternity allowances already, but extend to the partner. Both must have earned at least ￡123 per week (￡6,400 per year) and been employed at their current employer for at least 26 weeks by the 15th week before the expected due date (qualifying week). Don’t worry if I’ve lost you at this! These are all terms that I’m sure most mothers who have used Maternity Leave in the past will be aware of, but for anyone lost in trying to do the maths on that, it basically means you must have been with your current employer before the pregnancy and stay with them until you start the leave. The final key stipulation is that all the leave must be used within the first year after the child’s birth or placement.

Why haven’t I heard of it before?

If you’re reading this article, you probably have heard of SPL before, especially as a large number of people that follow me on LinkedIn are in the world of HR, and also because I posted an infographic about it recently. However, if you hadn’t heard about it before my last post, or you were vaguely aware of it but didn’t know much, I wouldn’t be surprised at all. Despite it being in place for over 8 years now, uptake is really low.

The TUC estimate that only 60% of fathers are eligible (the others excluded based on being agency workers, zero-hour contract workers or self-employed), and of those that are eligible, uptake is estimated between 2% and 8%.(2)

The latest published government figures show that only 2,600 people claimed ShPP in the quarter, so in a population of 67 million, the odds are that you won’t know someone who has utilised SPL.(3)

There’s a whole host of complex reasons that might be leading to this really low uptake, here I’ve summarised the main ones that I’m aware of:

Gender pay disparity makes it a financially unviable option. ShPP is paid out, currently, at ￡172 per week. If a heterosexual couple is deciding who will work for full pay and who will stay home for ￡172 per week, often the gender pay gap makes the decision for them, as lots of couples wouldn’t be able to live on the mother’s wage alone.

• Lack of consistency in enhanced pay from companies makes it a financially unviable option. Most companies offer enhanced Maternity Pay, often giving mothers full pay for a long period of time, making Maternity Leave financially viable. It is still uncommon for companies to offer the same for ShPP, and where no enhanced package is available for the father, they often cannot afford to live on the statutory amount.
• SPL is viewed, by the legislation, as the mother’s leave, which she has the choice to share with her partner should she wish. Understandably, that leads many mothers to view it as something they are giving up, and a loss for them, rather than it being something that belongs to the couple.
• Stereotypes and societal expectations take time to change, and gender roles have a huge history of stereotypes and expectations associated with them that go against sharing parental leave.

What’s my experience?

I had my first child in March 2022, and following her birth I took 5 months of Maternity Leave, before passing the metaphorical baton to my husband who took the next 5 months as Shared Parental Leave. I can’t remember when either of us first became aware of SPL as an option, but I know that we discussed it and agreed we’d try this split long before the pregnancy. It wasn’t something we had seen other couples do, and, likely owing to the fact I wasn’t even pregnant yet, it wasn’t something that we really discussed with anyone else. When my due date got closer though, the conversation came up with lots of people. I’ll share some reactions, with the caveat that I may be misremembering them slightly!

Work reactions:

• At my work, I received a lot of support from my manager and one-up manager, both of whom supported my decision and reiterated multiple times that if I changed my mind while I was off and wanted longer, that was an option, and they would support me in that too. Lots of people emphasised to me the importance of taking this time to be with my baby, and what a special time it was. This, along with a few people who were shocked at how quickly I planned to return, gave me the perception that I was expected to take longer, and only slightly tainted my overall positive experience by seeding a thought that I should feel guilty for not taking longer.
• At my husband’s work, he avoided telling anyone about his plans until he legally had to (a minimum of 8 weeks before the intended time off). I’m not sure if the late notice added to this, but I think it would be fair to say he didn’t receive the same level of support or encouragement as I did. It transpired that he was the first male in his company to take more than 2 weeks of leave for a new child, so it was a new experience for everyone involved, including the HR team, management, his colleagues, and himself.

Friends and family reactions:

• Largely supportive, lots of intrigue as to what SPL was, how it worked and what our companies thought about it. Multiple people we spoke to in a similar stage of life to us were very excited for us, thought it was a great idea and reflected on their own decisions too.
• A small handful of comments were made that may be expected based on historical gender stereotypes – am I not sad to be giving up my time off, is my husband not worried about the impact on his career etc.

Strangers reactions:

• I have to include this story because we laugh about it often. Whilst my husband was on his SPL, one midweek afternoon he was stopped in our local town centre by someone representing a charity. Starting with the usual polite small talk, he showed an interest in our child and told my partner it was so lovely that he was having a Daddy-Daughter day and had taken the day off work to ‘give mum a break’. My husband quite matter-of-factly said he wasn’t, which led to a string of awkward suggestions from the stranger trying to work out what the situation was, ending with him asking if ‘mum was out of the picture’, in a tone that suggested I might be dead. It’s funny to have the reminder that fathers taking long-term leave is still so rare in this country that some people will assume the mother is dead before assuming she’s at work!

Overall, we both loved it. Okay well, not every moment of it – anyone who has been a full-time parent will know that it isn’t all lovable – but we are certainly very glad we did it, and keen to do it again for any future children we might have. It has given us both an appreciation and a deep understanding of what it’s like to be a full-time parent and the only working parent. Obviously, we only live our own reality, so I’m not sure what our relationship or life would be like had we made a different choice here, but I think it’s fair to credit SPP at least in part for the following examples of positives we’ve seen personally:

• Increased empathy for each other’s efforts and struggles
• Both having equally strong bonds with our child
• Shared mental load burden for child-related areas (I’ve heard quite a bit about the mental load that primary caregivers carry for their children, and the impact this can have on a family long-term, and I think, though accept that this is fully anecdotal, so should say hope, that SPP will help balance this for us)

What might the future look like?

I’m hopeful for a future where fathers taking long-term leave to be with their children is commonplace. SPL could help us get there, and hopefully, sharing my experience will encourage anyone who is in a position where this could work for them to consider it, but there’s a lot more we can do.

As individuals:

• Familiarise ourselves with the different options available
• Support fathers who choose to take long-term leave – chat with them at baby classes, it can be even more awkward for them than it is for us mums!
• Encourage your companies to enhance their parental leave benefits
• Use your voting power to vote for political parties that prioritise parental leave options

As HR Leaders and companies:

• Review your parental leave policies and see where you can bring options for fathers and mothers in line (if you’re wanting to really go for it take a look at Aviva, who offer a full year off with 6 months of full pay to all parents!) (4)
• Offer enhanced ShPP
• Publicise the options for parents to ensure all employees know what is available to them
• Watch out for a culture of judging fathers negatively for taking an extended leave

As a government through legislation:

• Increase ShPP to an amount that would more readily support families
• Introduce enhanced leave entitlement dedicated to fathers, an decouple it from Maternity leave entitlement
• Introduce ‘use it or lose it’ leave for fathers
• Increase flexibility on when leave can be taken e.g. up to the child’s 5th birthday.

To tie this in with my last article(5) about the Gender Pay Gap, I wanted to end with a hopeful statistic I came across from studies in Australia showing a 6.7% increase in mum’s wages for every month a father stays on parental leave.(6) I’m confident there will be wide-reaching benefits for families, companies and society as a whole as fathers have more time with their children in the early years, and reducing the gender pay gap will hopefully be one of many.

#hr  #peopleandculture  #genderequity  #sharedparentalleave #workingparents

References:

1.      https://www.gov.uk/shared-parental-leave-and-pay

2.      https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/apr/26/shared-parental-leave-scrap-deeply-flawed-policy-say-campaigners

3.      https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2021-02-01/146798

4.      https://www.aviva.com/newsroom/news-releases/2022/06/takeup-of-equal-parental-leave-at-aviva-remains-high-after-four-years/

5.      https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/mind-gap-gender-pay-reporting-five-years-rachel-mcluckie

6.      https://www.suittiestroller.com/