My husband and I were very excited last year when we heard about the Shared Parental Leave scheme that was being put in place by the government. What an amazing idea!!!
I am a Primary School teacher and I absolutely love my job. Last year I got a promotion and I became the leader of the new Computer Studies Curriculum. My husband is an administrator at a local university and he hates his job. The new scheme seemed like it was designed for us! I could continue to work (as hard as it may be to leave my little bundle at home) and my husband could find joy taking care of the baby and having a break from his tedious job. We read up a little on the new scheme and it looked quite hopeful. All the articles were praising it for finally giving equal rights and allowing women to go back to work and continue to climb ladders.
Half way through my pregnancy we discovered this was not all it seemed to be. It was equal in terms of rights to stay home but not equal in terms of pay. Not if you were entitled to occupational pay as I was. It seemed unfair that although my husbands company offered their females occupational pay this was not now offered to the males. It may have been complete wishful thinking on our parts but we thought equal rights meant equal rights. As the mother you are legally required to take 2 weeks leave after giving birth but if then you choose to return to work, you lose all rights to occupational pay and only the statutory pay transfers to the male (even if his company offer the woman occupational pay). How anyone can live on statutory maternity pay alone is beyond me!
I really admire companies that have gone the extra mile and offered their employees the full equal rights like Richard Branson's company Virgin. He announced that employees who took the shared parental leave would receive up to a year's full pay. http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/news/1350445/richard-branson-giving-virgin-staff-full-pay-parental-leave/
We worked around the fact that we could only afford for myself to stay on maternity until baby was 3 months old. Then it actually works out cheaper for me to return to work and baby to go to nursery. This is not what I'd hoped for as no one wants their baby to be with someone else for 4 days a week. I was fortunate in that my husband managed to get 6 weeks off work initially so we were able to work together to care for baby and establish a routine at what is essentially a massive learning curve in our lives. He has also taken on extra hours during the week to allow for him to baby on the fifth day which means less time at nursery.
https://www.gov.uk/shared-parental-leave-and-pay/overview
I am a Primary School teacher and I absolutely love my job. Last year I got a promotion and I became the leader of the new Computer Studies Curriculum. My husband is an administrator at a local university and he hates his job. The new scheme seemed like it was designed for us! I could continue to work (as hard as it may be to leave my little bundle at home) and my husband could find joy taking care of the baby and having a break from his tedious job. We read up a little on the new scheme and it looked quite hopeful. All the articles were praising it for finally giving equal rights and allowing women to go back to work and continue to climb ladders.
Half way through my pregnancy we discovered this was not all it seemed to be. It was equal in terms of rights to stay home but not equal in terms of pay. Not if you were entitled to occupational pay as I was. It seemed unfair that although my husbands company offered their females occupational pay this was not now offered to the males. It may have been complete wishful thinking on our parts but we thought equal rights meant equal rights. As the mother you are legally required to take 2 weeks leave after giving birth but if then you choose to return to work, you lose all rights to occupational pay and only the statutory pay transfers to the male (even if his company offer the woman occupational pay). How anyone can live on statutory maternity pay alone is beyond me!
I really admire companies that have gone the extra mile and offered their employees the full equal rights like Richard Branson's company Virgin. He announced that employees who took the shared parental leave would receive up to a year's full pay. http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/news/1350445/richard-branson-giving-virgin-staff-full-pay-parental-leave/
We worked around the fact that we could only afford for myself to stay on maternity until baby was 3 months old. Then it actually works out cheaper for me to return to work and baby to go to nursery. This is not what I'd hoped for as no one wants their baby to be with someone else for 4 days a week. I was fortunate in that my husband managed to get 6 weeks off work initially so we were able to work together to care for baby and establish a routine at what is essentially a massive learning curve in our lives. He has also taken on extra hours during the week to allow for him to baby on the fifth day which means less time at nursery.
https://www.gov.uk/shared-parental-leave-and-pay/overview