Shared Parental Leave
With the introduction of Shared Parental Leave in 2015, why are so few taking advantage of a policy designed to encourage equal parenting? This brief highlights the multiple barriers to take-up in the UK.
With the introduction of Shared Parental Leave in 2015, why are so few taking advantage of a policy designed to encourage equal parenting? This brief highlights the multiple barriers to take-up in the UK.
In 2015, Shared Parental Leave (SPL) replaced Additional Paternity Leave, which had failed to appeal to families. SPL allows parents to share the care of their child in the first year after birth or adoption and provides much more flexibility for families. Last year take-up of statutory paid SPL was low, at just over one percent. However, very little academic research has been undertaken to understand why this is the case. The Equal Parenting project aims to understand why SPL does not seem to be appealing to families and what can be done to best improve awareness and increase uptake.
Dr Holly Birkett and Dr Sarah Forbes