Over the last decade, there has been a steady improvement in the rights of families at work. Paternity leave and pay were initially introduced in 2003 and are shortly set to undergo further transformation.
Current paternity leave entitlement is 2 weeks off in the 8 week period following the birth of a baby. The previous Government introduced Regulations, in force since April 2010, under which a father would be able to share a period of maternity leave with his spouse or partner. The Regulations affect parents of children due on
or after 3 April 2011.

With the introduction of new laws, fathers of babies due on or after 3 April 2011 now have the right to take up to 6 months additional paternity leave (APL). This will only be if the mother has returned to work and not before the baby is 20 weeks old. If the leave is during the mother’s Statutory Maternity Pay period, the right to payment will also transfer to the father and so may in part be paid.
It’s not uncommon these days for the woman to be the higher earner in a relationship and we all know of a new mother who has returned to work earlier than she would have liked after the birth of a child because of financial concerns.
In essence, fathers will be allowed to share maternity leave with the mother anytime after 6 months, leaving the father to take what is left of the remaining 12 months maternity leave and pay.

What will be the impact of additional paternity leave on your company?

The new laws mean there is a significant extension to the current paternity leave provisions of up to 2 weeks, so you may be nervous about the impact on your business. You may be concerned about the administrative burden the new paternity rights could place on you and the practicalities of potentially losing both men and
women from the workplace for extended periods. However, Ministers estimate that between 4% and 8% of those eligible for the new leave will take it, with only 1% of small businesses expected to be affected.
With a little careful planning, the benefits should soon be seen as more new fathers are able to balance work and family.

What should your business be doing now? Here are some suggestions:

• Review maternity/paternity and flexible work policies and procedures to ensure they take into account the changes from April 2011 onwards;
• Put systems in place to ensure the correct information about additional paternity leave and pay is captured – by using template notices and employee/mother declaration forms;
• Organise internal processes to ensure that entitlement to additional paternity leave/pay is included.

Consider whether your existing HR policies and procedures are adequate to deal with any requests for APL. If this is not the case, think about areas of policy that would benefit from extension or clarification. For example, your company may need to produce specific APL forms, prepare for hand-overs in advance and
consider how it will implement and organise a father’s entitlement to 10 ‘keeping in touch’ days.
Don’t forget that the new rights apply to partners including civil partners as well as adopters adopting within the UK (as long as they are entitled to statutory adoption leave).

If you would like to purchase a template paternity policy or need any advice please email us at julie.ware@peoplebusiness.co.uk or call us on 01932 874944.