The parent trap

Shared leave was first introduced in April 2015, and allows parents of new babies and parents who have just adopted a child to split up to 50 weeks of parental leave, with parents also able to split entitlement to statutory parental leave pay.

Low uptake has prompted a government publicity campaign this spring to encourage more parents to take shared leave.

The women and equalities select committee has already recommended a radical overhaul, calling for fathers to be offered 12 weeks of paid leave on a “use it or lose it” basis, which is unconnected to any reduction in maternity leave.

That’s the national picture. But is the housing sector doing any better?

To find out more, Inside Housing sent a survey to 180 housing associations across the UK. Fifty responded with details on their staff’s update of shared parental leave, and to what extent they are offering benefits that go beyond statutory entitlements.

Given that many social landlords pride themselves on being model employers, we wanted to find out if this was an area the sector is leading the pack. But the whole issue of how family life integrates into the workplace also has a direct bearing on the broader challenge for the sector around gender diversity that we have been addressing in our Inclusive Futures campaign.

For families with children, the question of who takes on child care responsibilities and how much each parent earns are directly connected with who in the family can see their career advance. The degree to which social landlords are lining up to support fathers in taking shared parental leave, and disrupting this dynamic, should have knock-on impacts.

What did our survey uncover?

BOX: Uptake

Given that only 2% of all new parents have opted for splitting parental leave, the baseline is pretty low. It would be very difficult to come up with a truly comparable percentage for uptake the housing sector - depending as it would on detailed questions about how many staff and their partners have had babies or adopted, and what they have chosen to do about leave.

But on a more blunt measure, we can see that the majority - 59% - of housing associations have had no staff at all take up shared parental leave since the policy was introduced in April 2015.

13 associations told us that one staff member had taken shared parental leave.

Only a tiny number had seen more than one staff member take the leave.

BOX: Pay and conditions

46% of housing associations offer benefits beyond statutory parental leave pay, our survey found. That might sound good, but it is strikingly lower than the proportion of housing associations that go beyond the statutory minimums for maternity leave and pay - a full 49 out of 50.

Statutory provision is that for the first six weeks the person on leave will receive 90% of his or her average weekly earnings before tax. After that it will be 90% or £139.78[chk] a week – whichever is lower – for 33 weeks. Because of the need to recover after childbirth, and potentially to breastfeed, in reality in most cases it is the mother who ends up taking the first block of time.

One reason to examine these benefits in detail is that many experts think that the economics of most modern families are stacked against particularly fathers taking shared parental leave.

As we have seen detailed in recent weeks in the gender pay gap data, men are likely to be earning more than women, including in the housing sector, making it harder for families to give up their income for a period of time .

It is notable that all the three housing associations who have had more than one staff member take shared parental leave offer staff more than just statutory parental leave pay.

Several housing associations offer staff up to 100% pay for the first six weeks (compared to the statutory of 90%), and many then offer half pay on top of statutory pay for an additional number of weeks, commonly 12, 18 or 20 weeks. Usually these benefits are dependent on length of service.

B3Living for example, offers to employees with at least 12 months continuous service, full pay for the first 13 weeks, then half pay plus statutory pay for weeks 14 to 26. The same benefits are offered for staff on maternity leave or shared parental leave.

Box: The father’s perspective

Simon Beake, risk and compliance analyst at Sovereign Housing Association, is one of the 29 housing staff to take shared parental leave so far at the housing associations which responded, and the first to take up the option at the organisation. He took 3.5 months of leave last summer to look after his second child.

“It worked for us financially, [my wife] earned more than I did. It made sense for her to go back sooner,” Mr Beake says. Because the couple split leave at 20 weeks, Mr Beake got two weeks of half pay then statutory pay, but the family was able to make it work by reducing their first child’s days at nursery.

But also the experience deepened their bond as a family. “It was an opportunity. If I didn’t do it I would have regretted it,” Mr Beake says. “I felt like.. You’ve brought something more to the family. You get to share what your wife’s been through as well.”

Managers were supportive, with senior figures from the housing association coming up to Mr Beake to say they thought it was a good idea. Still, he worried how his absence would go down - particularly as it fell during a restructure at the organisation. “My manager was very good, she was very supportive,” he adds.

By the numbers

50 - housing associations provided data

29 - total number of housing association staff to take shared parental leave since the policy began

59% of the 50 associations had no staff take shared parental leave

46% of associations offer enhanced pay or other benefits beyond the statutory requirements

99% of associations offer some benefits beyond statutory maternity pay

1 association offers only statutory maternity pay