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In February, the government invited views on how the system for shared parental leave and pay should operate.

The consultation looked at how the new system will work and fit together with current arrangements for maternity and paternity leave and adopters, as part of the government’s commitment to support working families.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said:

Women deserve the right to pursue their goals and not feel they have to choose between having a successful career or having a baby. They should be supported by their employers, rather than being made to feel less employable or under pressure to take unchallenging jobs.

It is already illegal to sack a woman because she is pregnant or on maternity leave, but we want to go further than that. We want to create a fairer society that gives parents the flexibility to choose how they share care for their child in the first year after birth.

We need to challenge the old-fashioned assumption that women will always be the parent that stays at home – many fathers want that option too. That is why from April 2015 we’re introducing shared parental leave to allow couples to make that decision jointly ensuring all career options remain open to women after pregnancy.

There shouldn’t be a 1 size fits all approach – that’s not how families are set up. Many businesses already recognise how productive and motivated employees are when they’re given the opportunity to work flexibly, helping them retain talent and boost their competitive edge. This is good for families, good for business and good for our economy.

Business Minister Jo Swinson said:

Thanks to extensive discussions with business and family groups we have found a workable approach to shared parental leave. Getting the detail right is crucial if shared parental leave is to drive a real cultural shift and help working dads play a greater role in their child’s early months.

We want to shatter the perception that it is mainly a woman’s role to stay at home and look after the child and a man’s role to be at work.

Employers too can gain from a system which allows them to keep talented women in the workforce and have more motivated and productive staff.

This new system will also give us a great opportunity to make our workforce even more flexible, help working families and boost economic growth.

The proposals for shared parental leave and flexible working are included in the Children and Families Bill 2013 which is currently going through Parliament. The details will be set out in regulations.

The new leave system will allow eligible working families to have more choice about how they balance their work and caring commitments. Parents can choose to be at home together or to work at different times and share the care of their child.

Businesses will also benefit from being able to have more open discussions about patterns of leave with their employees. In the response to the consultation published today (29 November 2013) the government announced that it will:

• protect mothers who give binding notice to opt into shared parental leave prior to giving birth by introducing a right to revoke the notice up to 6 weeks following birth. This is to make sure that every mother is able to remain on maternity leave, if she chooses to, once she has given birth

• require employees to give a non-binding indication of when they expect to take their allocated leave when they initially notify their employers of their intention to take shared parental leave. Employees will also be expected to give at least 8 weeks’ notice of any leave they will actually be taking. This is to support businesses in being able to plan their workforce

• introduce a limit on the number of times a parent can notify the employer to take a period of shared parental leave. The number of notifications will be capped at 3 (the original notification and 2 further notifications or changes). Provision will be made for changes that are mutually agreed between the employer and employee to not count towards this cap. The cap will enable parents to use the leave flexibly but reduce the uncertainty an employer may experience from an unlimited number of notifications

• set the cut-off point for taking shared parental leave at 52 weeks following birth (or adoption)

• create a new provision for each parent to have up to 20 days under shared parental leave to support them in returning to work. Parents will be able to use these days to return to work from shared parental leave on a part-time basis for a limited time

• maintain the right to return to the same job for employees returning from any period of leave that includes maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave that totals 26 weeks or less in aggregate; even if the leave is taken in discontinuous blocks. Any subsequent leave will attract the right to return to the same job, or if that is not reasonably practicable, a similar job

• align the notice periods for leave and pay for a parent taking paternity leave to make the system simpler

• publish guidance to encourage employees who qualify under the new fostering-for-adoption placement process to give employers as much warning as possible.

Under the government’s proposals, announced in November 2012, the right to request flexible working will be extended to all employees who have worked for their employer for 26 weeks or more. Employers are obliged to consider all requests in a reasonable manner.

The current statutory procedure will be repealed to lift the burden on business and the government has asked Acas to produce a code of practice to help businesses manage this new extended right. Acas will also produce a non statutory good practice guide with practical examples of managing this in the workplace. This will be published alongside the final Code early next year.

Notes to editors

1. The government response can be found here www.gov.uk/government/consultations

2. The consultation document can be found at Consultation on the administration of shared parental leave and pay

3. The shared parental leave system will give parents more choice and freedom in how they share the care of their child in the first year after birth. More detail can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/news/reform-of-flexible-parental-leave

4. This will enable both mothers and fathers to keep a strong link to the workplace; encourage fathers to play a greater role in the early stages of their child’s life; and allow employers and employees greater flexibility in reaching agreement on how to best balance work and domestic needs without state interference.

5. The government’s economic policy objective is to achieve ‘strong, sustainable and balanced growth that is more evenly shared across the country and between industries’. It set 4 ambitions in the ‘Plan for Growth’, published at Budget 2011:

• to create the most competitive tax system in the G20
• to make the UK the best place in Europe to start, finance and grow a business
• to encourage investment and exports as a route to a more balanced economy
• to create a more educated workforce that is the most flexible in Europe

Work is underway across government to achieve these ambitions, including progress on more than 250 measures as part of the Growth Review. Developing an Industrial Strategy gives new impetus to this work by providing businesses, investors and the public with more clarity about the long-term direction in which the government wants the economy to travel.