Should my organisation enhance Paternity Leave or Shared Parental Leave?

Parental Leave in 2025

Fully paid, extended maternity leave has become a cornerstone of modern workplace employee well-being policies, while, understandably, paid support for new dads, “secondary carers” and “non-birth” parents has lagged behind both in terms of the length of leave and the pay rates offered.

In the UK, the advent of Shared Parental Leave in April 2015 created some degree of momentum towards enhanced parental leave opportunities for fathers and non-birth mothers but progress towards creating improved gender equality through the mechanism of parental leave has been slow. Professional services sector have since led the way as part of talent recruitment and retention and the goal of a more equal representation of women in senior leadership roles.

In the UK, there is a debate about whether enhancing paternity leave or shared parental leave offers better outcomes for individuals, families and organisations alike.

Shared parental leave was designed to offer flexibility by allowing parents to split their leave entitlement. However, it has seen limited uptake, estimated to be around 5% eligible parents due to complex regulations and persistent societal norms around gender and the role of men and women in caregiving.   

By contrast, paternity leave - dedicated leave for fathers, has emerged as a simpler, more impactful alternative.

In this article I argue that enhanced Paternity Leave is the superior option, with Equal Parental Leave being the gold standard measure of support for new parents in any organisation.

Content

➡️ What Is the statutory framework?

➡️ Enhanced paternity leave is great.

➡️ But, equal parental leave is better.

➡️ Why enhanced paternity Leave is better than enhanced shared parental leave (SPL)

➡️ What does SPL have going for it?

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What Is the Statutory Framework?

Paternity leave and Shared Parental Leave differ significantly in structure. While shockingly, the self-employed have no rights to any paid government support.

Maternity Leave

Statutory Maternity Pay for the first 6 weeks: 90% of their average weekly earnings (AWE) before tax, the remaining 33 weeks is the lower of £172.48 or 90% of AWE.

Paternity Leave

2 weeks Statutory Paternity Pay for eligible employees is the lower of £172.48 a week or 90% of AWE earning.

Shared Parental Leave

You can share up to 50 weeks of leave and up to 37 weeks of pay.

The actual amount depends on how much maternity or adoption leave and pay (or Maternity Allowance) you or your partner take. Pay is at the rate of £172.48 a week or 90% of your average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.

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Enhanced Paternity Leave is great…

By offering dedicated enhanced paternity leave for fathers, organisations signal that parenting is a shared responsibility rather than a task solely for mothers and that they value and support fathers’ involvement in early childcare, with the associated mental health, family connection and domestic gender equality benefits that this supports.

Enhanced paternity leave challenges traditional gender roles and can help reduce the motherhood penalty—the career disadvantage women often face after having children.

Both the campaign objectives of the Fatherhood Institute and Pregnant Then Screwed focus on improving paternity leave to allow “6 weeks for Dad” - dedicated time for men to use or lose, not leave, such as SPL, that must be opted into.

https://www.fatherhoodinstitute.org/post/next-steps-for-our-6-weeks-for-dads-campaign

https://pregnantthenscrewed.com/why-we-are-campaigning-for-6-weeks-paid-paternity-leave

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But, Equal Parental Leave is better!

While improving the length and pay associated with paternity leave is important, the major benefits are derived when organisations implement equal parental leave – offering the same pay and leave regardless of how you become a parent.

When coupled with a culture that expects men to take the leave on offer, equal parental leave sends a strong message about an organisation’s commitment to gender equality which can also enhance their reputation as progressive employers.

Better for equality

Equal Parental Leave is more likely to remove gender bias from the recruitment and promotion process. If your organisation cannot use gender as a way of judging who might take extended leave when they become parents, or perhaps be interested in longer term flexible or part time working arrangements, the motherhood penalty can be mitigated as judgements about presence and long term ‘commitment’ are much harder to assume and the bias against female hires is reduced.

Assumptions are everywhere as this young female colleague of my wife, Lisa, reflected to me:

“When I first met Lisa, I didn’t think she had kids, because I didn’t think a mum could do this job”

Simpler

Equal Parental leave is simpler from a legal and administrative angle. I think we’ve all heard painfully non-inclusive stories of non-birth mothers on paternity leave. Equal leave is inclusive of every type of parenthood journey, including adoption, surrogacy and single gender relationships.

Equal Parental Leave is the most common form of enhancement in the Inspiring Dads Parental Leave Database. At the time of writing, 127 out of 285 UK organisations offer equal, full pay parental leave, while 36 equalise materity and shared parental leave.

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Why enhanced Paternity Leave is better than enhanced Shared Parental Leave.

When budgets are tight, and you can only afford to enhance Paternity Leave OR Shared Parental Leave (SPL) which one should you choose (and why?)

Sharing leave sounds like a really great benefit, doesn’t it? On the face of it, it sounds better at accommodating diverse family structures, including same-sex couples, adoptive parents, and families where one parent may not be biologically related to the child. It recognises that caregiving roles are no longer bound by traditional norms, creating inclusivity.

However, SPL, is problematic for a number of reasons.

SPL introduces greater complexity - parents have to negotiate within their relationships about how to split leave, typically birth mothers need to give up some of their leave to a spouse or partner and that partner has to communicate with their workplace.

For men the process of opting in to take their partners leave is fraught with societal and workplace judgement and discrimination…

Caregiving fathers face ‘social mistreatment’- they face mockery, are viewed as idle, struggle with friendships, face negative judgement and are viewed with suspicion. The “Fatherhood Forfeit” (Kelland, 2022)

Men who wish to be actively involved in family life voicing concerns regarding being perceived as ‘wimpy and girlie’ (Connell and Messerschmidt, 2005), a ‘sissy’ (Kimmel, 1994, 119) and a ‘feminine man (Locke, 2016; 199)

“Most cite fears of being discriminated against professionally, missing out on pay rises and promotions, being marginalised or even mocked as reasons for not taking time off.” BBC July 21, “Paternity leave, the hidden barriers keeping men at work.”

Combined with gender pay gap data that indicates that families are more likely to be worse off when a dad takes unpaid leave. We can start to see why, in heterosexual relationships, this often leads to mothers taking the majority of the leave, perpetuating existing inequalities, reinforcing norms and knowledge around child caring responsibilities.

In the next section I’ll talk about why Shared Parental Leave can be a good thing. But very few of the benefits can be realised due to low uptake.

Not only is uptake of SPL low, the UK government’s own research indicates a striking pattern that suggests that SPL is a perk for middle class white people.

“Parents who take up SPL and pay are more likely to be

•        older,

•        parents of white ethnicity,

•        highly qualified,

•        work in large organisations,

•        be on a higher income, and

•        have progressive gender role attitudes

•        are more likely to be married”

The Dad Shift Research

”The numbers are damning. Less than 2% of families use Shared Parental Leave - because it's too poorly paid, too complicated, and forces couples to take leave away from mums (which many are reluctant to do).

We used an FOI request to uncover that the 2% figure also contains deep inequalities. SPL pay is so low that just 100 people in the bottom 30% of earners took it last year. More SPL is claimed in London than Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the North West and the North East combined.”

Read more here.

Paternity Leave offers a clear and straightforward framework compared to the complexities and challenging societal dynamics of Shared Parental Leave.

For HR departments, managing shared parental leave can be a logistical challenge. It requires coordinating leave schedules, ensuring eligibility requirements are met, and navigating the transfer of leave entitlements between parents. These administrative hurdles often deter companies and employees from fully embracing shared parental leave.

Paternity leave, however, is simpler to implement and administer. The clear entitlement reduces confusion and ensures that fathers can take time off without extensive paperwork or negotiation.

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What does SPL have going for it?

One clear benefit of Shared Parental Leave is that it’s more likely to support dads being in sole charge of their children – gaining crucial skills and confidence while creating a newfound understanding of the second shift and mental load.

It is much harder to be on leave at the same time as your partner when you are accessing shared parental leave.

Pregnant Then Screwed have in identified staggered leave as being key to helping to close the gender pay gap.

“I believe that if the Government were to offer fathers 6 weeks paternity leave at 90% of their pay, to be taken once the mother has returned to work, this would have the biggest impact on the gender pay gap and reducing discrimination in the workplace.”

I would argue that shared parental leave is better than paternity leave at accommodating diverse family structures. The big BUT is that these same benefits are also derived from equalised parental leave, but with the societal and social challenges described above. 

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Conclusion

Given the choice between matching a maternity offer with either paternity leave or shared parental leave, it is always better to match with paternity leave and create equal parental leave within your organisation.

If, as an organisation, you actually want dads and non-birth parents to take extended parental leave you need to create Equal Parental Leave. If you don’t want people to take leave, offer equalise your leave via Shared Parental Leave.

Equalised parental leave is the gold standard in the UK.

The Inspiring Dads Parental Leave database has so far identified

⭐ The full pay offers of more than 285 UK Organisations.

⭐ 125+ Equal Parental Leave offers.

⭐ 36 more equalising via Shared Parental Leave.

⭐ 179 offering "6 weeks for dad."

By offering equalised, fully paid, parental leave, organisations can promote gender equality, enhance workplace culture, and enjoy economic and administrative advantages. As companies seek to attract and retain top talent, adopting policies that prioritise dads access to leave is not just a socially responsible choice but also a strategic business decision.

Shared parental leave, while well-meaning, has struggled to achieve its intended goals due to societal and practical barriers that discourage fathers from taking significant time off, especially time that they are not explicitly allowed to take.

Paternity leave, being simpler and more accessible, avoids these pitfalls and ensures that fathers can participate in early childcare without undue barriers.

In almost all circumstances ring fenced Paternity Leave creates much greater benefits than Shared Parental Leave by driving higher levels of uptake, fostering workplace equality, improving culture, and reducing administrative burden.

"Supporting Dads to Make Brave Decisions..."

“Supporting Dads To Make Brave Decisions…”

Championing New Dads At Work (Edition 3)

This weekly newsletter saves you time and effort by providing you with a range of resources, inspiration and topics related to fatherhood and equality.

Each week I will share content around the Inspiring Dads' 5 Pillars of "Championing New Dads at Work"

These 5 pillars go to the heart of how I help HR leaders support their new dads, enhancing gender equality at home and at work, improving well-being, performance and culture.

The hidden barriers keeping men at work

“Most cite fears of being discriminated against professionally, missing out on pay rises and promotions, being marginalised or even mocked as reasons for not taking time off.”

BBC REPORT - Paternity leave: The hidden barriers keeping men at work

If you want to understand more about why supporting new dads is the route to gender equality, then you'll need to join me live and for free next Tuesday, 28th June.

"Why do we need to coach dads?”

It's a pretty common question when budgets are tight, maternity leave provision is much more generous and retaining female talent is a pressing issue.

Let these women's words educate you on the pressures faced by dads and positive impacts that coaching can drive...

What pressures did your partner face before starting the coaching?

• "Work life balance and a lack of sleep"

• "Work life balance, financial implications and being the ‘perfect’ dad"

• "A very demanding job and commute, feeling guilty about not seeing enough of me and our son, not feeling as though he was supportive enough of us."

What positive changes have you seen IN HIM as a result of the coaching?

• "More conversations about shared responsibility"

• "Better mental space, accepting that there is no such thing as a perfect dad, accepting that I would know the kids a little better and how to look after them."

• "More open to discussing the difficult topics, more of a team player, more self-awareness."

How have these positive changes improved YOUR life?

• "Greater appreciation of what's needed to make us happy as a family of four."

• "A lot calmer with the twins, better work life balance, realising that he can do it all."

• "We have much more open communication about managing family life and our priorities. I feel like we are sharing the load a lot more which has been a huge relief for me, and I feel much more optimistic about our future as a family"

Join the free webinar next week and learn why we can't just assume that dads are ok, and why supporting new dads at work is the route to gender equality.

Live and for free next Tuesday, 28th June.

The New Dads Accelerator

Our 5 week group course creates safe supportive spaces for "first year fathers", blending online course content with group video calls to learn, reflect and share.

This is what our graduates say:

"A clearer plan of how to pave the way forward."

"I am more resilient and reflective."

"Taking time for myself after a day at work"

"More clarity on holistic management of life with a new child. More oversight of personal and long term goals"

"I would strongly encourage new dads to access The New Dads Accelerator. It provides a focused and fresh approach to the dynamics of fatherhood. I feel lucky to have accessed this course after birth of our second child. My only wish is that I'd accessed the course after the birth of our first."

Patrick, GP Partner in London

https://courses.inspiringdads.co.uk/

Big Careers, Small Children.

Episode 86 of the Leaders Plus Podcast "Big Careers, Small Children" is out now and I join host, Verena Hefti, as we discuss:

"Supporting Dads to Make Brave Decisions, Removing Barriers Around Shared Parental Leave & Why Gender Equality at Home Influences Work "

In this episode we cover

• How dads can be brave and go beyond social expectations.

• How to deal with the inevitable judgement from yourself and your peers when you challenge expectations.

• Gender equality at home and work and how they influence each other.

• What organisations can do support dads to take shared parental leave and how to remove barriers.

• What men really talk about and why most men are more supportive of change than you might think.

• Why when you connect men together to share stories and experiences it’s incredibly powerful.

• The one thing every dad can do to move closer to the work/home setup they’d really like.

• The huge pressure faced by dads who are the main breadwinner but who also want to be present parents.

Click here to listen:

https://www.leadersplus.org.uk/big-careers-small-children-ian-dinwiddy-inspiring-dads/

"Equal Parental Leave Rights, Enshrined In Law, For All."

It's my vision... writ large here: https://www.inspiringdads.co.uk/why

As Joeli Brearley, Founder at Pregnant Then Screwed wrote over the weekend

"Paternity leave in the UK is an embarrassment. 10 measly days for £318. It’s as if people think caring for children is a woman’s job.. ehem.

Today, we are releasing the findings from our survey which show that 1 in 4 dads & non-primary carers don’t even use their full entitlement due to pressure from work & financial issues, and even if they do, a quarter continue working whilst on leave due to pressure from their employer.

Meanwhile, 80% say they don’t have enough time to bond with their baby. They don’t have enough time to get to know their own child. That’s devastating, isn’t it? And as a result, almost half say they experienced a new mental health issue."

Joeli was in parliament yesterday making the case to the House of Lords for dads to get 6 weeks paternity leave paid at 90% of salary as part of the Pregnant Then Screwed campaign - Let’s Talk About Six.

Want to build better?

Join over 100,000 others and sign the Pregnant Then Screwed petition here

https://lnkd.in/ezhSjTM

"Make parental leave equal for mothers and fathers."

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I hope you enjoyed this week's content, feel free to share with your friends and colleagues! and If you have content, an event or an article you think my audience would want to learn about, then do let me know here.

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Gender diversity is good for the bottom line.

Gender diversity is good for the bottom line.

Championing New Dads At Work (Edition 2)

This weekly newsletter saves you time and effort by providing you with a range of resources, inspiration and topics related to fatherhood and equality.

Each week I will share content around the Inspiring Dads' 5 Pillars of "Championing New Dads at Work"

These 5 pillars go to the heart of how I help HR leaders support their new dads, enhancing gender equality at home and at work, improving well-being, performance and culture.

“Companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams were 25 percent more likely to have above-average profitability than companies in the fourth quartile”

McKinsey 2019

That's pretty punchy evidence as to why gender diversity is a good for the bottom line.

If you want to understand why supporting new dads is the route to this type of gender diversity return on investment, then you'll need to join me live and for free in our next webinar

A unique book - the first of its kind, Hypnobirthing book for dads.

Hypnobirthing was a big part of our preparation in advance of first becoming parents back in 2010. I can still remember Marie Mongan's tranquil, dulcet tones and breathing exercises.

Now the team at DaddiLife have launched a new book called:

A Positive Birth: The Dad's Guide To Hypnobirthing & Becoming A Confident Birth Partner

Han-Son Lee, Founder of DaddiLife had this to say

"A huge motivation for the book has been to challenge the all too common birth conventions where dads are confined to a passive role when it comes to birth (a chair in the corner is something we hear all too often), alongside the shocking stats that 1 in 3 women experience significant birth trauma which often drives post partum issues later on. A Positive Birth is all about how dads can be true birth advocates for their partners, and we've interviewed over 20 hypnobirthing dads to help other dads on their hypnobirthing journeys and how they've strengthened their relationships with their partners."

Help men to move away from just being "Dad", the person in the corner. You can get your copy here (not an affiliate link)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1739884140/

The New Dads Accelerator

Our 5 week group course creates safe supportive spaces for "first year fathers", blending online course content with group video calls to learn, reflect and share.

This is what our graduates say:

"A clearer plan of how to pave the way forward."

"I am more resilient and reflective."

"Taking time for myself after a day at work"

"More clarity on holistic management of life with a new child. More oversight of personal and long term goals"

"I would strongly encourage new dads to access The New Dads Accelerator. It provides a focused and fresh approach to the dynamics of fatherhood. I feel lucky to have accessed this course after birth of our second child. My only wish is that I'd accessed the course after the birth of our first."

Patrick, GP Partner in London

https://courses.inspiringdads.co.uk/

"Unhappy Father’s Day: the dad-shaped hole in UK postnatal services"

Yesterday the Fatherhood Institute published the fifth in a Contemporary Fathers in the UK series of evidence reviews, funded by the Nuffield Foundation. Packed full of data such as

"Two-year-olds’ cognitive development is better and they display fewer behaviour problems when their father’s early caregiving or play has been frequent, regular, positive in tone or engaged and active."

And...

"New mother’s mental health is poorer when she does not feel supported by her baby’s father or when he is less available at home than other fathers."

It uncovers the 2nd class status of men within maternity system and makes four key recommendations for how policy and services could be improved

including

All tax-funded services and interventions for families in the perinatal period should be commissioned, designed, delivered, promoted and evaluated in ways that recognise fathers’ own need for support... and their impact on children and mothers.
Have a look here:

http://www.fatherhoodinstitute.org/2022/unhappy-fathers-day/

Can you help with a bit of market research?

The team at the excellent Book of Man online platform are looking for people (not just men) to complete a 4 minute survey looking at the portrayal of male caregivers on TV and Screen.

Co founder Mark Sandford posted this on LinkedIn

"A new study by the Geena Davis Institute on gender in media and Equimondo has found that 'male care givers on our TV and film, screens are disproportionally depicted as incompetent, abusive or absent' - which is frankly a dangerous stereotype trope that The Book Of Man is committed to change. Coupled with over 75% of men saying they can't relate to advertising targeting them, we thought it was time to delve a bit deeper and see what you think. The survey below takes the same time as a proper cup of tea to brew (4 minutes), but would really help move the conversation forward."

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/HN275GK

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I hope you enjoyed this week's content, feel free to share with your friends and colleagues! and If you have content, an event or an article you think my audience would want to learn about, then do let me know here.

Photo Credit @sharonmccutcheon via Unsplash

MORE INSPIRATION

Introducing... "Championing New Dads At Work"

Introducing… Championing New Dads At Work

Championing New Dads At Work (Edition 1)

This weekly newsletter saves you time and effort by providing you with a range of resources, inspiration and topics related to fatherhood and equality.

Each week I will share content around the Inspiring Dads' 5 Pillars of "Championing New Dads at Work"

These 5 pillars go to the heart of how I help HR leaders support their new dads, enhancing gender equality at home and at work, improving well-being, performance and culture.

Fathers Day

In the UK, our Fathers Day is fast approaching - Sunday 19th June. Many weeks ago, when I was buying T20 cricket tickets for us and another family to watch Middlesex v Kent at Lords I was surprised to find one of the 4 adult tickets was a fathers day freebie. Winner!

But Fathers Day isn't just about free slog fest cricket tickets, comedy socks or multi packs of craft ales. It's about talking about real dad stuff - the pressures, the emotions and fears. I have four speaking events in the week either side of Fathers Day. One's a panel event where I'm the moderator and a couple are a blend of presentation and interview style - getting real with "a real dad", not that I'm a fake dad of course, but one who doesn't talk about UK Government's Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) research...

The best thing about all of this is that in two examples I'm talking to men to set it up.

This is actually quite a big deal.

The chairs or co-chairs of the "Working Parents Crew" or the "Family and Carers Committee" are inevitably female. Meeting dads who are taking on those roles, while clearly not being ground breaking per se, is a pretty big step forward towards gender equality.

Message from Joeli Brearley, founder of Pregnant Then Screwed

Your support is needed

"DADS (and secondary caregivers), we need 10,000 of you to fill in our survey so we can make a stink about paternity leave. We have the least generous paternity pay in Europe. Paternity leave is so god-damn important but our legislation, and antiquated company policies prevent dads from taking time out to care for their child.

For every month of paternity leave taken by a dad, a mother’s wages rise by 7%. The same can be said for same sex couples, where one is the main carer. If dads spend time with their children in those early days, research shows that families have higher rates of well-being, kids do better in the education system and couples are 40% more likely to stay together.

In collaboration with the Trade Union Congress we are collecting data to better understand what is happening to new dads at work, and what changes you want to see both in terms of policy & workplace practice, so that we can lobby on your behalf.

If you are a dad please fill this in.

If you know a dad please send him the link here:"

https://pregnantthenscrewed.typeform.com/dadsurvey

Ever felt isolated as a dad?

It's pretty common feeling in my experience, but it doesn't have to be that way, join my friend Jago Brown to talk about fatherhood and isolation on Tuesday June 14th at 6pm UK time.

Equality Starts at Home is a movement for change and are changing outdated stereotypes and expectations about who does the work at home and why.

They want men to join them to talk about their experience of fatherhood and parenting. Help them to guide they work so they can include more men in the conversation.

Email equalitystartsathome@gmail.com to register.

The session includes a guest speaker from the inspirational Dad La Soul joining to talk about all the benefits of Dad's groups, and why and how to get involved.

The Queen of Kings

Yesterday I went live with with Fiona Ross in Episode 7 of her "No More Pea Soup" show. Fiona is "the Queen of Kings", a transformational men's coach, mentor and trusted advisor to high achieving men who, from the outside, appear to have it all; on the inside, their truth is very different.

We covered some important cultural and societal pressures that men and dads face and I talked about what I have learnt about how to support dads, both from my own experience and that of my clients.

Watch or listen here.

#Flexforall

One of the key themes to building a more gender equal society is to embed flexible working opportunities for everyone. When we remove the sense that flexible, remote or part time working is a 'perk for mums', then we go a long way to supporting individual and family choices.

On Tuesday 24th June I was a guest at Parliament for the 1st Annual Working Dad Awards. As part of the event Suffolk County Council presented a case study into how they approached flexible working.

1) They identified 8 types of defined ways of working flexibly.  
2) All job adverts had to list all 8 types as being available.
3) The only way to change the job ad was via formal submission

Outcome -  50% of women and 30% of men at Suffolk County Council work part time.

That is massive!

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I hope you enjoyed this week's content, feel free to share with your friends and colleagues! and If you have content, an event or an article you think my audience would want to learn about, then do let me know here.

Photo Credit @wildlittlethingsphoto via Unsplash

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