19 – 23 October is National Parenting Week. This week we celebrate Parenting in Challenging Times.
Parents and Grandparents should be supported as much as possible by their companies while raising children.
Ways in which your organisation should be supporting parent workers are:
Maternity Leave
Employees who are pregnant are entitled to Ordinary Maternity Leave and Additional Maternity Leave. These can span up to 26 weeks each regardless of the employees length of service. Employees can also qualify for up to 39 weeks statutory maternity pay.
Paternity Leave
Eligible employees can qualify for up to two consecutive weeks Ordinary Paternity Leave with pay. They are also entitled to take unpaid time off to attend up to two ante-natal appointments with their pregnant partner.
Flexible Hours
Employees have the legal right to request flexible working hours providing they have worked for the same employer for more than 26 weeks. Consider carefully if this is possible within your business, what impact would it have on the business and the new parent? Could it work for everyone?
Work Life Balance Workshops
An employer can provide Work Life Balance Workshops to help their employees gain some advice about how to deal with this and any new change in their lives.
Shared Leave
A woman on Maternity Leave can commit to ending the leave early and either parent can then take Shared Parental Leave. This must be taken before the child’s first birthday.
What’s New?
The Government have been talking about including grandparents in Shared Parental leave however, at present “grandparental leave” reforms have been put on hold.
If you have any queries or want any more information please feel free to contact us at info@applehr.co.uk
Further information is available at the Government website