Shared Parental Leave Reform

Since Shared Parental Leave was introduced in April 2015, its uptake has been rather low. However this decreased during Covid by 17% according to a recent study referred to below. The complexity of the scheme and the rate of pay have to be factors in the lack of take up. The Government is due to publish a review of Shared Parental Leave by the end of 2021. It is hoped that this will bring some much needed reform to make this type of leave more attractive and increase its uptake. Watch this space!

Use of shared parental leave (SPL) declined for the first time since its launch in 2016 during the pandemic, research has found, with experts saying it is more important than ever that firms support families. A study by EMW found that just 11,200 couples applied to use the scheme between 2020 and 2021: a 17 per cent fall on the previous year, when a record 13,100 couples applied. In comparison, the firm’s analysis found that 598,000 women took maternity leave in the last year, indicating that just 2 per cent of women who took some form of parental leave last year used SPL.

https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/news/articles/use-shared-parental-leave-dropped-17-per-cent-during-covid-study-finds