MP joins with dads to fight for better paternity leave

Earlier this month, Jon Pearce MP met with dads in Whaley Bridge at The Bridge Nursery for a Messy Play event.

The group discussed the pressures on new dads bringing up children in the High Peak, and what the Government can do to support them. 

The meetup was held in partnership with ‘The Dad Shift’ Campaign Group to mark the introduction of Statutory Paternity Leave by the last Labour government 22 years ago. Research from The Dad Shift shows that over 4 million babies have since benefitted from the policy to date. Other MPs across the country also attended similar meetups to mark the anniversary. 

In 2015, the Coalition Government introduced Shared Parental Leave (SPL), through which mothers can share some of their leave allowance with their partners. However, with uptake of SPL at less than 2% nationally, momentum is building behind calls to improve the UK’s paternity leave. Currently it provides two weeks paid at less than half the minimum wage and no entitlement for self-employed people, and is now one of the least generous in Europe. 

Labour’s Employment Rights Bill will make statutory paternity leave a ‘day-one right’, and campaigners hope the government’s upcoming review of parental leave will lead to the introduction of longer and better paid paternity leave, including for self-employed parents. 

The anniversary meetup also came at a time of national conversation about fatherhood and masculinity, sparked by the Netflix series ‘Adolescence’ and Gareth Southgate's comments about ‘toxic influencers’ targeting young men. 

Highlighting the growing consensus on the importance of present fathers, The Dad Shift points to robust support for active fatherhood across the class and the political spectrum. In polling done for The Dad Shift and Movember by More in Common, 86% of the public agree “It’s better when both parents have real opportunities to be equally active caregivers to their children” and 75% agree “Boys learn more about being a man from how their father cares for and involves themselves in their life” than just from “protecting and providing” alone. 

Jon Pearce MP said: “I am passionate about the need to change this; we cannot continue to tolerate a society that pushes fathers into being secondary caregivers. I welcomed my third daughter into the world last October and I took three weeks of paternity leave. Despite this being more than the statutory paternity leave of two weeks, it was not enough. My wife and I didn’t have long enough to get the structures in place that you need when looking after a newborn. 

After returning to Westminster, I found myself having to ask my wife questions to try and play catch up in the care of our child. We must change that if we are going to fundamentally change the inequality.” 

Alex Lloyd Hunter, co-founder of The Dad Shift said, "Statutory paternity leave was a landmark achievement of the previous Labour government that has benefited millions of families. However, while it was groundbreaking when first introduced, our paternity leave is now one of the worst in Europe, so now we need the current Labour government to make improving it one of their own landmark achievements. 

The most important thing fathers can provide their families with, and their boys in particular, is their presence. We're encouraged to see so many MPs across the country listening to dads' experiences. The upcoming review is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to both transform support for fathers and help address the growing challenges highlighted by shows like Adolescence. Active fathers help protect boys from the message of toxic influencers, and we need to do more to support them - starting with improving the UK's paternity leave.” 

You can find out more about The Dad Shift and their campaign by visiting: https://www.dadshift.org.uk