The plans, outlined by trade and industry secretary Patricia Hewitt last week, are not expected to come into effect before 2006. They include a proposal that mothers should get some or all of the second six months of maternity leave paid and that fathers should receive a minimum of 90 per cent of their earnings during their two-week paid paternity leave entitlement. Currently fathers receive 102 a week.
The Maternity Alliance called the proposals 'a huge boost for working families'. Director Liz Kendall said, 'Too many parents, particularly mothers, currently feel forced to return to work before they're ready because they can't afford to take unpaid leave. A year's paid leave will give them more choice about how to balance work and family responsibilities when their children are very young.'
She added that enabling fathers to share a portion of maternity leave, and increasing paternity pay, would 'support fathers who want to play a bigger role in bringing up their children'.
Clare Phizacklea, human resources director at nursery chain Busy Bees, said the proposals to extend paid maternity leave would make it easier to plan and offer temporary contracts to cover staff maternity leave. The group subsidises staff childcare through its voucher scheme and offers discounts to staff in its nurseries.
Fathers Direct, the national information centre on fatherhood, welcomed the plans but warned that the failure to advocate an extra four weeks of paid paternity leave could undermine the current shift towards shared parenting.
Duncan Fisher, director of Fathers Direct, said it was vital that some maternity leave could be transferred to the father, as the minister had suggested. He said, 'We must not create a system that forces a woman either to stay at home or place her baby in childcare. She should also, if she chooses, be able to share the care with the child's father.'
Peter Moss, professor of early childhood provision at London University's Institute of Education, said the Government's policy of neglecting parental leave in favour of paid maternity leave 'was fundamentally misconceived'
because by 'extending maternity leave by longer and longer periods it becomes a discriminatory measure'.
He added, 'It sends a message that young children are women's responsibility, not a shared responsibility.'
* See Special Report, p12