In June 2025, the Women and Equalities Committee (WEC) published its report, “Equality at work: Paternity and shared parental leave.” This report followed a December 2024 call for evidence and forms part of the WEC’s ‘Equality at work’ inquiry, aligning with the Labour Manifesto’s commitment to enhancing family-friendly rights.
The report set out numerous recommendations to fix the “broken system” and address the “stark gendered disparity” in current statutory leave. The WEC’s recommendations focus on significantly increasing the duration and pay of paternity leave:
| Focus Area | Key Recommendations
(Taken from the Equality at work: Paternity and shared parental leave report June 2025) |
| Increased Pay | Raise Statutory Pay for the first six weeks to match maternity pay (90% of average earnings). This change should be implemented during this Parliament without reducing existing maternity entitlements. |
| Increased Duration | Set a medium-term objective to increase paid statutory paternity leave to six weeks over the course of this Parliament, drawing on lessons from other countries (like Spain). |
| Eligibility & Access | The government should either amend the Employment Rights Bill or commit to establishing a day one right to paid paternity leave, removing the current service requirement. |
| Flexibility & Culture | The extended leave plan should allow for maximum flexibility in how the weeks can be taken (e.g., in multiple blocks) within the first year. The government should also assess the benefits of making a portion of the extended leave compulsory to drive cultural change. |
| Self-Employed Parents | Rectify the exclusion of self-employed fathers by considering options for statutory paid leave for them, and by introducing a Paternity Allowance equivalent to Maternity Allowance. |
| Cultural Barriers | Consider steps, such as targeted awareness campaigns, to reduce wider cultural and societal barriers to fathers taking more leave, particularly in working-class communities. |
Shared Parental Leave (SPL) and Wider Family Support
The committee also called for a major review of SPL to simplify the scheme and for the inclusion of more family structures in the paid leave system:
- Simplify and widen access to SPL: The government must address flaws in SPL to increase take-up. The review should focus on simplifying or removing complex eligibility criteria related to employment status, time in service, and earnings, aiming to include the self-employed and those on lower incomes.
- Maximise flexibility in SPL: Examine and reduce notice periods (currently eight weeks) required for taking blocks of leave or changing dates to maximise flexibility for parents, subject to employer consultation.
- Financial incentives: Consider introducing financial incentives to increase SPL take-up, drawing inspiration from overseas models like the German “partnership bonus.”
- Support for kinship carers: The review must include kinship carers with a view to implementing statutory paid leave for them, aligning their entitlements with those for parents by adoption and surrogacy.
- Support for single parents: Address the inequality faced by single-parent families by considering options to allow them to reallocate some entitlements to nominated family friends or relatives who can share caring responsibilities.
- Multiple births: Consider options for additional financial support and extra paid leave for parents of multiple births, drawing on systems in countries like Sweden, France, and Spain.
Government’s response
Since our last newsletter, the Government have published their response to the June 2025 report. In their report dated 19 September 2025 the Government responds to the WEC and accepts many of the committee’s recommendations, recognising the need for reform.
The report, ‘Paternity and Shared Parental Leave – Government Response’ details extensive recommendations, some of which have already been adopted or will soon be, as part of the Employment Rights Bill, such as:
- Introducing neonatal care leave and pay
- Bereaved partner’s paternity leave
- Paternity leave and unpaid parental leave a day one right
- Making flexible working applications more likely to be accepted.
The new report outlines further specific implementations that the Government has committed to undertaking:
- Raising paternity pay: As a priority, the Government will consider raising paternity pay to the level of maternity pay in the first six weeks i.e. 90% of average earnings.
- Bereaved Partner’s Paternity Leave: The government will roll out this leave entitlement next year, 2026.
- Right to Time Off for Pregnancy Loss: The government have committed to introducing a new right to time off work for pregnancy loss.
- Defining Kinship Care: The process of defining kinship care in legislation has begun through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. This framework aims to ensure that local authorities interpret and apply the term uniformly.
- Kinship Allowance Trial: The government has announced a £40 million package to trial a new Kinship Allowance later this year (2025) in several local authorities. The purpose of this trial is to test whether paying an allowance to cover the additional costs of supporting the child can help increase the number of children taken in by family members and friends.
- Parental leave and pay review: The Government have committed to ensuring that substantial changes like raising the statutory paternity pay to 90% and extending leave to six weeks will fall in scope of the current review into parental leave and pay. This review commenced 1 July 2025 and is expected to run for 18 months, concluding with findings and a roadmap.
We will of course be keeping a keen eye on any further developments and will be sure to highlight these changes on our website.
