View from the AOP: Shared parental leave

Hailed as a game-changer in modern working families, shared parental leave (SPL), which allows parents to divide a 50-week allocation of leave however they choose, was tipped to be the quiet revolution of our time. Why then, more than a year on, do take up figures remain woefully low?

The introduction of SPL in April 2015, aimed to redress the balance, allowing men who were previously only entitled to two weeks’ paternity leave instead have a more equal share with their partner. But latest figures from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) reveal that just 5% of new fathers and 8% of new mothers have opted to take shared parental leave since its introduction.