Employer focus on working parents: Parental leave and pay and childcare policies

Report

August 2022

Parental leave and pay

and childcare policies

EMPLOYER FOCUS

ON WORKING

PARENTS

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Employer focus on working parents: parental leave

and pay and childcare policies

In this report (which draws on the CIPD’s Labour Market Outlook data), we explore current

practice in relation to supporting working parents and, in particular, what provisions

organisations provide around parental leave.

This survey was carried out with YouGov online in June and July 2022 and includes a total

sample size of 2,000 senior decision-makers in the UK. The figures have been weighted and

are representative of UK employment by organisation size, sector and industry. The CIPD

last looked at this issue in 2016. The questions on childcare provision were just asked of

employers in England.

Key findings

• A third (33%) of organisations have a maternity pay policy that covers the statutory

minimum requirement, while 18% offer between 4 and 13 weeks of enhanced maternity

pay at or near the full rate of pay. Around a sizeable fifth (21%) offer 26 weeks of

enhanced maternity pay at or near the full rate of pay followed by 13 weeks at the SMP

rate or 90% of the average weekly earnings.

• Most organisations (49%) have a paternity or partner leave policy that provides the

statutory one to two weeks’ leave entitlement. A small proportion provide three weeks’

leave (3%) and slightly more provide four weeks’ leave (9%). A further 13% provide

between 5 and 28 weeks’ leave.

• Over a third (36%) provide the statutory minimum paternity/partner pay of £156.66 per

week or 90% of an employee’s average weekly earnings if that is less. While 16%

provide two weeks of enhanced paternity pay at or near the full rate of pay, 8% provide

up to four weeks of enhanced paternity pay at or near the full rate of pay. Almost one in

ten (9%) provide between 5 and 28 weeks at or near the full rate of pay.

• Almost half (46%) of organisations would support extending statutory paternity leave

and pay. A third (33%) believe this should be extended to four weeks, but a sizable

number (29%) think it should be extended to either six weeks (15%) or seven weeks or

more (14%).

• Very few new fathers/partners and mothers have taken up the right to shared parental

leave in the last two years, according to our sampled organisations. If we compare our

findings with 2016, we see a downward trend in take-up.

• Over a third (34%) of employers in England report the introduction of 30 hours’ free

childcare per week for all 3–4-year-olds in 2017 has made a positive impact on the

number of women returning to work. Over half (56%) believe the participation rate of

women with young children would improve further if the same level of free childcare

support was extended to all children aged 0–2 as well as 3–4.

Our recommendations for policy-makers

The UK Government should:

• Enhance the statutory paternity/partner provision to six weeks at or near the full rate of

pay, to help deliver more balance and choice over the distribution of caring

responsibilities and better reflect the changing nature of modern families.

• Provide affordable childcare from the end of maternity/parental leave to enable parents

and often mothers to return to work more quickly if they choose to.

• Make the right to request flexible working a right from day one of employment. We also

call on the UK Government to reconsider the stipulation that employees can only make a

request every 12 months.

Maternity policies

A third (33%) of organisations have a maternity pay policy that covers the statutory minimum

requirement.

In total, 18% offer between 4 and 13 weeks of enhanced maternity pay at or

near the full rate of pay. Around a fifth (21%) offer 26 weeks of enhanced maternity pay at or

near the full rate of pay followed by 13 weeks at the SMP rate or 90% of the average weekly

earnings.

Statutory maternity pay (SMP) for 39 weeks is paid at 90% of the average weekly earnings for the first six

weeks. The following 33 weeks will be paid at the SMP rate or 90% of the average weekly earnings (whichever

is the lower).

Table 1 shows there are significant sector differences here, with private sector employers

(38%) more likely than voluntary (29%) and public (13%) sector employers to offer the

statutory minimum requirement. Public sector employers are more likely than voluntary

sector and private sector employers to offer 26 weeks of enhanced maternity pay at or near

the full rate of pay followed by 13 weeks at the SMP rate or 90% of the average weekly

earnings.

This is more generous than when we surveyed in 2016, when 48% offered the statutory

minimum requirement, 14% offered between 4 and 13 weeks of enhanced maternity pay,

and 18% offered 26 weeks of enhanced maternity pay at or near the full rate of pay followed

by 13 weeks at the SMP rate or 90% of the average weekly earnings.

Paternity/partner policies

Leave

Most organisations (49%) have a paternity or partner leave policy that provides the statutory

one to two weeks’ leave entitlement. A small proportion provide three weeks’ leave (3%) and

slightly more provide four weeks’ leave (9%). A further 13% provided between 5 and 28

weeks’ leave (see Table 2 for the breakdown).

If we compare that with the provision in 2016, 71% of organisations provided the statutory

one to two weeks’ leave entitlement at that time, 3% provided three weeks’ leave, and 7%

four weeks’ leave. So entitlements have increased but perhaps not at the level that we might

have expected or indeed need to support greater gender equality at work.

Pay

If we look at pay provisions, over a third (36%) of employers provide the statutory minimum

pay of £156.66 per week or 90% of an employee’s average weekly earnings if that is less.

Employers in the private (40%) and voluntary (35%) sectors are significantly more likely to

provide the statutory minimum, compared with those in the public (24%) sector.

Our findings revealed that 16% provide two weeks of enhanced paternity pay at or near the

full rate of pay and 8% provide up to four weeks of enhanced paternity pay at or near the full

rate of pay. Almost one in ten (9%) provide between 5 and 28 weeks at or near the full rate

of pay (see Table 3 for the breakdown).

In 2016, 49% provided the statutory minimum pay at the time, for up to two weeks, 6%

provided one week’s enhanced pay and one week at the statutory rate, 18% provided two

weeks’ enhanced paternity pay and a further 8% provided more than two weeks’ enhanced

paternity pay at or near the full rate of pay.

Support for extending statutory paternity/parental leave and pay

As Figure 1 shows, almost half (46%) of organisations would support extending statutory

paternity leave and pay, and just under a quarter (24%) would oppose it. Employers in the

private sector (27%) are significantly more likely to oppose this than employers in the public

(13%) and voluntary sectors (18%).

When it comes to employer views on how long statutory paternity leave and pay should be

extended for, a third (33%) believe this should be extended to four weeks, but a sizable

number (29%) think it should be extended to either six weeks (15%) or seven weeks or more

(14%) (see Table 4 for the full breakdown).

Shared parental leave and pay policies

Very few new parents have taken up the right to shared parental leave (SPL) in the last two

years, as Figures 2 and 3 show. According to our sampled organisations:

• 85% say no new fathers/partners have taken up SPL

• 9% say 1–25% have done so

• 2% say 26–50% have done so

• 5% say 51–100% have done so.

In comparison:

• 88% of employers say no new mothers have taken up SPL in the last two years

• 6% say 1–25% have done so

• 2% say 26–50% have done so

• 4% say 76–100% have done so.

If we compare these figures with 2016, we see a downward trend in take-up. In 2016, 43% of

organisations said that between 1% and 100% of new fathers/partners had taken up SPL

and 32% of organisations said that between 1% and 100% of new mothers had done the

same.

In our view, this underlines the fact that the current SPL policy just isn’t working. Seven

years on from its introduction, recent estimates

suggest that just 2% of eligible couples

made use of shared parental leave last year.

The CIPD believes it is a better policy for the UK Government to prioritise reform of

paternity/partner leave and enhance the statutory provision to six weeks at near or full pay,

to help create greater support and fairness for new parents.

Planned changes to parental leave and pay policies

Our research found that over the next two years 15% of organisations plan to make changes

to their parental leave and pay policies. Six per cent are planning to make changes to all of

their parental leave and pay policies, 4% to SPL, 3% to paternity and 2% to maternity

policies.

For those that are planning to make changes to their maternity policies, 73% are planning to

enhance it and 9% are planning to decrease their policy. For paternity/partner policies, 70%

are planning to enhance them and 11% are planning to decrease them. For SPL, 65% are

planning to enhance their policies and 13% are planning to decrease their policies.

Keeping-in-touch days

Around two-fifths (38%) of organisations encourage both women and men to take the

optional keeping-in-touch days during maternity, adoption, shared parental leave or

additional paternity leave. A further 35% leave it entirely up to the individual employee and

8% say they allow it but don’t encourage it. A fifth (20%) aren’t sure what approach their

organisation takes in relation to keeping-in-touch days.

Childcare provision

Over a third (34%) of employers in England report the introduction of 30 hours’ free childcare

per week for all 3–4-year-olds in 2017 has made a positive impact on the number of women

returning to work. Only 2% say it has had a negative impact, as shown in Figure 4.

Howlett, E. (2020) Shared parental leave uptake still ‘exceptionally low’, research finds. People Management.

7 September. Available at: www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/article/1747108/shared-parental-leave-uptake-

still-exceptionally-low

Currently, some 2-year-olds in England are entitled to 15 hours of free childcare if they meet

UK Government eligibility criteria. Over half (56%) believe the participation rate of women

with young children would improve further if the same level of free childcare support was

given for all children aged 0–2 as well as 3–4 (Figure 5).

This is something that the CIPD has long campaigned for and is highlighted in our previous

public policy manifestos.

Support in place for employees with caring responsibilities

Over a third (34%) of organisations offer access to remote or hybrid working. As shown in

Table 5, we found that 29% of employers support parents through providing flexibility in start

and finish times to help with school drop-offs and pick-ups, and 28% proactively promote

flexible working options such as job-share, term-time working and part-time hours. Another

popular provision is health and wellbeing support for working parents, for example

mentoring/counselling (25%). These last three flexible working and wellbeing options were

also popular when we surveyed in 2016.

However, almost a quarter (24%) say their organisation does not have anything in place to

support employees who have caring responsibilities.

Conclusion

The CIPD last explored organisational approaches to parental leave and pay in 2016 and

anticipated quite a lot of change in employer practice. However, our findings here show that

not that much has changed over that period.

In particular, take-up of shared parental leave continues to be very low and very few new

parents have taken up the right in the last two years. While most organisations (49%) have a

paternity or partner leave policy that provides only the statutory minimum leave entitlement

and around a third provide the statutory minimum paternity/partner pay.

That is why we are calling on the UK Government to enhance the statutory paternity/partner

provision to six weeks at or near the full rate of pay. Shared parental leave in its current form

isn’t working. A more effective way of starting to equalise parental leave and pay is to ring-

fence paid paternity/partner leave. Of course organisations don’t need to wait for any UK

government change in this area but can start to enhance their parental policies where they

are able to do so.

Reform is also needed to the current childcare/early years education provision. Our survey

findings support our policy call to provide affordable childcare from the end of

maternity/parental leave to enable parents and often mothers to return to work more quickly

if they choose to.

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