What is Shared Parental Leave?

Shared Parental Leave (‘SPL’) allows birth mothers to share a portion of their maternity leave (or the primary care provider in adoption cases) with their partners to care for their child up until its first birthday.

Eligible parents are entitled to 50 weeks of SPL. The exact amount of SPL eligible parents are entitled to will depend upon how much maternity/adoption leave the birth mother/primary adopter has taken.

SPL can be shared in the following ways:

• The birth parent or primary adopter returns to work early and takes SPL at a later date;
• The birth parent or primary adopter returns to work and their partner takes SPL;
• Both parents are off at the same time;
• Both parents share SPL evenly and are off at different times; and
• Both parents return to work at the same time and take SPL at a later date.

Upcoming reform to SPL

Given the new Labour government, it is perhaps unsurprising that a review of employer friendly rules and processes is beginning to occur as this fits with their manifesto promise.

The House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee (‘WEC’) have begun an inquiry into the reform of paternity rights and SPL. This inquiry will be examining the possibilities for reform and shall last until 31 January 2025. This is the first major inquiry focusing on SPL since 2016.

WEC Report on the Gender Pay Gap

The WEC’s report on the gender pay gap in March 2016 set out the following considerations and aims in relation to SPL:

• The ability to share care between mothers and fathers in order to reduce the gender pay gap;
• Many fathers wish to play a greater role in caring responsibilities for their children; and
• The government’s SPL policy launched in 2015 predicted the SPL take up rate to range between 2% and 8%.

Current Problems with SPL

Following on from the report, take up rates of SPL have been fairly underwhelming with a 5% take up rate among employee fathers and a 1% take up rate among employee mothers. The poor uptake rate of SPL can be attributed to many different reasons, including:

• Many fathers cite financial reasons for failing to utilise SPL as the low level of statutory pay is unaffordable for families in the current financial climate.
• Higher earning families are more able to make use of SPL because they are more able to contend with the decrease in income. Changes are required so that lower earning families are more able to make use of the scheme.
• In addition to this, it is suggested that many fathers are still unaware that SPL exists which highlights the need for further awareness to be raised.
• Other criticisms of SPL include the rules of the scheme being particularly complex for both employers and employees to follow.
• Another potential explanation for the poor uptake of SPL is employers failing to have the necessary policies in place regarding workload and responsibilities. Fathers are often concerned that their workload will not be delegated therefore they would effectively be completing the same volume of work but have less time to do so. This is turn increases the pressure on fathers wishing to use SPL.

Possible Areas of Reform

To address the poor uptake, the WEC is expected to consider the following in the upcoming inquiry:

• The current ability of SPL to give parents flexibility in sharing parental responsibilities;
• The equality and labour impacts of the SPL;
• The explanation for the low take up rates of SPL;
• Addressing any inequalities in the ability to take up SPL in relation to ethnicity, educational status and income; and
• Considering policies implemented in other jurisdictions.

The Future of SPL

Whilst it is uncertain which measures will be implemented to address the current shortcomings of the SPL scheme, it is vital that employers keep up to date with future changes in this area.

In particular, policies should be produced and then maintained and updated to reflect any changes in the law. Employers should ensure they have adequate knowledge of the SPL scheme so that they can comply with the scheme in relation to their employees.

Employees should familiarise themselves with their rights under the SPL scheme and consider using the scheme if appropriate to their particular circumstances.

Questions, Queries and Concerns

If you have any Employment Law concerns or wish to discuss issues either raised in here or otherwise that you might have or which may be on the horizon, our Employment Law team are on hand to discuss matters.

Please contact either our head of department Jason Alcock or trainee Kalvin Suddhi in our Employment and Dispute Resolution Team by email to jalcock@ansons.law or ksuddhi@ansons.law.