Kathryn Hartley, Jessica Hobbs, Emily Humphreys, Clare Matysova
Imagine life as a mum of young children on a low income: you might be juggling two or three jobs; struggling to find affordable childcare; rarely seeing your partner because you’re both working different shift patterns; and all the time, trying to make sure you’re looking after your family as well as you possibly can.
Maternity, paternity or shared parental leave – together known as parenting leave – should help families by giving them an income and keeping a job open for them while they look after a new baby. Research shows that good things can come from parenting leave. Children might benefit from higher breastfeeding rates, vaccination rates and lower mortality rates; mums have better mental health and more chance of being in employment later; dads might experience greater life satisfaction and have more opportunity to build relationships with their children from an early age.
But all these potential benefits could only come to you if you can access parenting leave and use it in a way that suits your family. What if the system leaves you struggling?
On 3 June, a group of eight global majority mums met a group of researchers in east London at a community event to talk about the UK’s parenting leave policy. This was an important discussion because the experiences and views of minoritised groups are not always represented in parenting leave research. As the researchers, we wanted to understand whether the academic research matched the lives of families living in an area with longstanding health inequalities. A quarter of children in Tower Hamlets and Newham are in low-income families, the highest proportion in London. Together with an artist, the group created a powerful – and colourful – summary of both research and real experiences.
It’s a good time to have this conversation, because the UK Government has been reviewing its parenting leave policy and is interested in evidence about fairness and equality. What we heard helped us to understand how difficult the system can be to navigate for those in non-standard forms of employment.
The biggest theme of the discussion was that mums wanted more support. In the crucial early weeks, they faced pressure from lost sleep, recovery from birth, worrying about the development of their babies, and opinions of others about what they should do. Later, it came from limited access to trustworthy and affordable childcare, and the continuing demands of domestic and paid work. Most felt that their partner would have been able to help more if they had been able to spend more time with them, but the parenting leave system made this difficult.
Access to parenting leave
Although all employed parents are entitled to some kind of parenting leave, the reality is that not everyone can use it in the way they’d like. It’s also pretty complicated. Mums can take up to a year away from work; dads and partners can take up to two weeks. Some people – such as Uber drivers – are considered ‘workers,’ not employees, so they don’t have the same rights. Others can’t access the full benefits of the leave system because they haven’t worked for long enough in the same place. Mums need to have worked for the same employer for a minimum period before their baby’s due date to get higher-rate statutory maternity pay for the first six weeks of their leave. A similar rule applies to dads who want to get statutory paternity pay. And both partners have to meet this rule if they want to be able to use a system called Shared Parental Leave, which transfers some leave rights from mums to their partners. Even for those who can access parenting leave, money can be a problem. Only part of the time is paid, and the statutory pay rate for either maternity or paternity leave is a maximum of around £194 per week for most of the leave period. This is equivalent to less than half of the UK minimum wage for a full-time employee.
If you’re feeling a bit confused by now, you’re not alone. Complexity and poor understanding of the policy are known to be important barriers to families planning their parenting leave.
At the event, we shared research about how leave can be accessed and used. Kathryn Hartley from University College London explained her ongoing research showing the proportion of parents who aren’t entitled to parenting leave because of their employment status, how this has changed over time and that the reasons for ineligibility are not the same for mums and dads. Clare Matysova, who did her research at the University of Leeds, found that the UK’s strongly gendered leave policies limit what parents feel is possible when planning care. This included their ability to share leave in the ways they wanted, even if they had full leave entitlements.
These research findings resonated with mums. It wasn’t always clear what – if any – maternity and paternity leave their families were entitled to. Several mums also said that the current entitlement to two weeks of statutory paternity leave was not long enough to support their family’s needs and was unfair on both mums and dads. The complex Shared Parental Leave system didn’t resolve the problem for them: many might be ineligible, and some didn’t know that it is possible for both parents to take Shared Parental Leave at the same time; or to choose how much of their leave to share. One expectant mum was in an especially difficult situation since both she and her partner had more than one job, making it feel incredibly difficult to negotiate all the arrangements they would need to make.
Mental health and wellbeing on parenting leave
We moved on to speak about research on the impact of parenting leave for those who do get to take it. Jess Hobbs from Birkbeck University of London talked about her research which found that fathers experienced better wellbeing during paternity leave, but worse when they returned. Emily Humphreys from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine found that taking paternity leave isn’t associated with better mental health or wellbeing in either dads or mums a few months after the birth. We don’t know for sure, but that could be because most dads don’t get to take any more than two weeks leave, which might not be long enough to make a long-term difference to families’ wellbeing.
Mums at the event felt that the limited leave for dads had had an impact on their own wellbeing and said it was particularly difficult to be without help when having problems with their own or their baby’s health. One spoke about spending a long time in hospital after a birth, then going home and being alone and responsible for baby, cooking, cleaning and everything. She said that if her husband had been at home, he would have helped. Another mentioned seeing little of her partner and having to explain to him what she was going through.
Although there was a lot of pressure, some mums also talked about other sources of support that maternity leave had given them. They were able to take part in local activities in children’s centres, libraries and the wider community. Even so, some explained that they were anxious about returning to work and felt they had little choice in when or how. Some were constrained by lack of affordable childcare or felt scared about leaving their children in private nurseries or missing important milestones. There was inconsistency in what nurseries offered and what parents were expected to provide. One mum said she found it very difficult to leave her small child, who was too young to understand. Another spoke about a cousin feeling forced to go back to work at a time she didn’t want to, because her employer’s policy meant that she would have to return her maternity pay. Others felt they would value a confidence boost through having local volunteering opportunities before returning to work.
What might help?
To make things easier for all families at one of the most important and difficult times in their lives, parenting leave needs to reach the people who need it most.
Simpler criteria for workers to access paid leave might help families like those who we spoke to. There’s also strong evidence from other countries that non-transferable leave time for each parent paid at or close to their usual wage leads to fathers taking more time off work when they have a baby. In the European Union, each parent is entitled to at least four months of parenting leave, with some countries offering much longer and more generous entitlements. In Sweden, each parent is entitled to 240 days of paid leave.
Campaign groups and charities supporting families have been calling for a more flexible system. They would like longer parenting leave for dads and decent pay to both parents independently of each other. This could be a small, but important, step to address inequalities in the current system.
Special thanks to the women who came to the event and generously shared their views, stories and experiences. They are not named in this post to pr