Jeremy Lefroy MP has welcomed the new government campaign to promote the Shared Parental Leave and Pay scheme.
The government is committed to enabling men and women to balance work and care between them and Shared Parental Leave is one way of supporting this. In 2015 the Shared Parental Leave and Pay Scheme was introduced to support parents and offer choice when it comes to childcare, allowing mothers to return to work sooner if they wish to and fathers to take an active role in bringing up their child.
The policy helps parents to balance work with family life in a way that works best for them and their particular circumstances and benefits employers who can retain talent in their workforce and can contribute to closing their gender pay gap. The scheme allows working couples to share up to 50 weeks of leave and 37 weeks of pay between them in the first year after the child's birth or placement for adoption.
The campaign will deliver on the government’s manifesto commitment to improve take-up of Shared Parental Leave. This is an important example of action to deliver the Prime Minister's ambitions for a stronger economy and fairer society that works for all.
To help parents to understand and make use of the scheme, a suite of new tools and guidance has also been published to accompany the campaign launch. To find out more about how Shared Parental Leave can help your family, go to:
https://sharedparentalleave.campaign.gov.uk
Commenting, Jeremy said:
“I welcome the work that the government is doing to ensure mothers and fathers can balance their family and working lives in a way that best works for them. The flexibility that Shared Parental Leave offers is a huge step forwards, and I hope that many of my constituents take up this scheme at one of the most exciting and wonderful times in their lives.”