Recommendation 21

The Government has said the parental leave system is broken and promised to launch a “full review”. It is clear that the system has some fundamental failings, including low statutory pay across the board; inadequate leave periods for fathers and other parents; exclusion of many working parents and guardians; and design flaws and unnecessary complexity in the SPL scheme. We acknowledge that it is not feasible to solve all of these problems overnight. However, we expect the Government’s proposed review to lay the foundation for progress in each of these key areas over the course 60 of this Parliament and in the longer term. Working parents will be let down by a review that leads only to tinkering around the edges of the system. The Government should commit to meaningful reforms in the medium term, followed by an assessment of the impacts at the end of this Parliament, with a view to going further towards a more gender equal parental leave system. (Recommendation, Paragraph 120)