Changes planned for the future

The government has announced that it will implement several major changes to the law in this area. Details can be found in Modern Workplaces: Response to Consultation on Flexible Parental Leave, November 2012. The planned implementation date for most of the changes set out below is 2015. The exception is the planned general extension of flexible working to all employees, which is expected to become law in Spring 2014:

• More flexible sharing of maternity leave: From 2015, the government proposes that new mothers in England, Scotland and Wales will have the right to return to work two weeks after giving birth and to share the rest of their maternity leave with their partner. Here are the key features of this new flexible leave scheme, if it becomes law:

◊ A new mother to be able to share her leave at any point after the two week compulsory leave period;

◊ Parents to share the remaining 50 weeks of leave between them;

◊ Parents to be allowed to take leave in turns, in different blocks, or at the same time;

◊ Leave entitlement to remain at 52 weeks, only 39 of which (effectively nine months) will be paid, as under the existing statutory scheme;

◊ Couples will be expected to be open with employers and rules will be drawn up, for example about giving employers notice;

◊ Paternity leave is to remain limited to two weeks, subject to review in 2018;

• Fathers at ante-natal appointments: Expectant fathers to be entitled to unpaid (not paid) leave for up to two antenatal appointments;

• Flexible working: From Spring 2014, all employees, regardless of size and type of employer, to be allowed to make a flexible working request, whether or not they have caring responsibilities. There will be no exemption for small employers. The existing procedure is to be replaced by a Code of Practice, being developed by Acas;

• Parental leave age limit: The upper age limit for unpaid parental leave is to increase to 18 for all children;

• Adoption: Adoption leave and pay to be closer aligned to maternity leave and pay. In particular, there will be no qualifying service requirement, and the first six weeks of Statutory Adoption Pay will be set at 90% of the adopting employee’s pay, instead of a flat rate.

• Subsidies for child care costs: From Autumn 2015 the government proposes to introduce a voucher system for subsidised child care, initially limited to the under-fives.