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Start a free trialAs a business owner, it’s ultimately within your best interests to support your employees who are new parents, so they can bring their best to work in the long run. If anything, it serves you best to go above and beyond what’s merely required of you as per UK employment law.
Since April 2024, UK employment law now offers two weeks of paternity leave, but is it really enough? Not really.
In this guide on paternal leave, we’ve invited Rachel Carrell, CEO and founder of Koru Kids, to talk us through what paternity leave is, its legal implications and how you can have higher standards as an employer to make sure you sustain happy and high-performing teams.
Statutory paternity leave is a legal entitlement for eligible employees in the UK.
Employees may take some time off work to care for their newborn or newly adopted child. This allows them to fulfil their responsibilities as a parent during a pivotal point in their child’s development, without fear of impacting their career.
Not everyone qualifies for statutory paternity leave. Some criteria must be met first.
To be eligible for statutory paternity leave, the employee must:
I feel I should point out that this is the bare minimum you’re legally required to give. I would advise you to make paternity leave longer as a strategic business decision, but more on that later.
Since April 2024, statutory paternal leave can last for 2 weeks – it’s possible to take everything at the same time or separately depending on your individual needs. The leave can only start after the birth of a child.
Assuming an employee qualifies for statutory paternity leave, they are entitled to £172.48 a week, or 90% of their average weekly pay, whichever is lower.
After that, it’s really up to the employer to extend it. You may have a policy that allows you to get paternity leave and be paid at the same time. Again, we’ll come back to this later in this post, but it would be better for your employees to have a longer paternity leave for their wellbeing, mental health and ultimately productivity levels in the long run.
Paternity leave does not apply to people who are not currently in a job, and will only be taken into account if you’re in a job for at least 26 weeks.
Right now, the government does not offer any support for self-employed fathers, so you will have to rely on savings if you decide to take time off work.
It’s normal to want to spend more time with your child and be involved in their day-to-day life, but there’s currently no way to extend paternity leave when it comes to government schemes. That means you will have to rely on your employer’s policies for it to be possible.
Living in the UK, I am (and perhaps you are) lucky to be in a country that offers programmes like statutory paternity leave in the first place. How lucky, though, are we really? Statutory paternity leave is certainly better than nothing, but it’s definitely not enough either.
Babies are beautiful, magical little agents of complete chaos. The highs are high, but the lows can be very, very low. It might be not something you think about, but a few examples:
Even if parents have adopted rather than given birth, it’s still a major time for adjustments. As everyone knows, newborns don’t sleep much - and sleep deprivation is literally a method of torture.
Some parents will be well supported by family and friends, but many parents aren’t. Parenting requires mums and dads to reinvent themselves, discover and get used to a new identity, a new relationship with each other, all on very little sleep and with a new, extremely demanding boss.
Does this seem like a good time for paternity leave to only be two weeks?
Obviously not. One or two weeks just isn’t enough time for a new parent to adequately bond with their child, and to support the mother during her time adjusting to parenthood. Those two weeks go by quick as a wink, and that limited time can put heaps of emotional and physical strain on a new family.
The truth is, it doesn’t have to be this way. The available science shows us that the early involvement of both parents in a child’s life contributes to stronger mental health for the mother, and healthier parent-child relationships.
Bonding early on can have far-reaching impacts on a child’s life. It helps the cognitive, neurobiological and physical health outcomes that are foundational to their success as adults.
Offering a more generous paternity leave package isn’t just the right thing to do for your team and their families, but can also have a positive effect on how your business performs.
Here are just a few reasons I can think of for adding a little extra to your UK paternity leave policy.
According to Koru Kids research, 3 in 5 fathers and non-birthing partners said a substantial paternity package would be a key factor in looking for a job. They probably aren’t being vocal about this to you - but if you don’t advertise a good paternity (and maternity!) package, you’re almost certainly missing out on great applicants.
Offering an enhanced paternity leave benefit can help employee satisfaction and engagement. Take care of your expecting parents during an important life event, and they’ll stay loyal to you.
Extend your paternity leave period a little longer, and let the fathers at your organisation have extra quality time with their newborns. If they don’t have to stress about returning to work immediately, it’ll help with their mental health in the long run, so they’ll be ready to do great things when they come back.
If you offer a robust paternity leave policy at your company, similar to what you may have for maternity leave for example, you send a loud and clear message that gender equality is important at your organisation. It’s a positive brand association you can shout about internally and externally.
Part of the reason there’s a gender pay gap is that mums take much more parental leave than dads. By giving more paternity leave, you make this world a little more equal on this front.
So much for that. How do you go about creating your own paternity leave policy at your company, though?
Here’s some guidance and best practices for offering paternity leave pay in the UK:
For starters, begin with the legal minimums for paternity leave in the UK, which I’ve already covered. That helps you make sure you’re compliant and provides a foundation on which to build.
Connect with other HR leaders in your industry, and ask them to share how they manage paternity leave.
For inspiration, you can also check out Koru Kids ‘Paternity League’ table to see how your policies stack up against the Glassdoor Top 50 companies’.
Remember: generous and forward-thinking policies can help you attract the best talent, so it’s important to know what similar companies offer to potential employees — it will help you stay competitive in the job market.
Talk to your employees about what they expect from a paternity leave policy. Consider launching employee feedback surveys to get their input, and implementing the best suggestions. That will help you make a policy that suits your team’s specific needs. It’ll also help your employee satisfaction and morale when your team members know they’ve been listened to.
Being able to afford your new policy is crucial to implementing it. It’d be terrible to become hostage to fortune or need to go back on promises.
It can be a good idea to make some reasonable assumptions about uptake, and to stress test within a range to check your budget will cover it. People are going to be making big life decisions on the basis of this policy, so it needs to be solid.
It may be that the modelling step exposed some tough choices, or clashed with other policies.
It’s a good idea to:
That’s it for me, but please have a look below at Charlie’s paternity leave policy to get some inspiration.
To help you build your own paternity leave policy, we’ve included a free template below. At Charlie, we’ve chosen not to call it paternity leave, but parental leave (not to be confounded with this kind of parental leave), as we think it’s important to give equal benefits to parents. Copy and paste it, amend it or download the PDF for free.
We’ve chosen to try and treat maternity and paternity leave as equally as possible because we believe in equal benefits for both parents, so to us it’s parental leave. However, there are some statutory rights that extend past our parental leave that are available for mothers, so we will be explicit if these are an additional maternity consideration.
This policy applies to all Charlie employees who have been on our payroll for at least 15 weeks between the baby is due. Statutory Maternity Leave applies to all Charlini mothers, regardless of the amount of time they’ve been employed.
I'm expecting (or adopting) a child, what do I need to do now?
At least 15 weeks before the baby is expected, your must tell HR and your line manager:
What will I be paid?
In addition to the above benefits, we offer an optional extra 4 weeks at 50% pay for anyone who:
What benefits can I access before and during my parental leave?
This list isn’t exhaustive, so if you feel you would benefit from reduced hours, please do speak with your line manager as soon as you can
While you’re on parental leave, you’ll still have access to your budgets. We’d love to support you on your journey towards welcoming a new family member by expanding the reach of your budgets! You can use the following budgets in these ways:
What about when I return to work?
What might working part-time look like?
At the very least, for the first 3 months, we’d like you to work 3 full working days. By the end of month 6, we’ll have a clearer idea of what’s working well and will discuss with you what upping your days might look like.
With Charlie, you can also manage paternity and maternity leave with ease. Give your people access to company policies in one click and track time off within the software. Start a free trial today.
