Helping employees navigate challenges around parenthood and the workplace
Becoming a parent is one of the most significant life changes, reshaping not only family life but also how work is organised and experienced. Yet for many parents and their employers navigating this transition is far from straightforward.
Emma Banister, Professor of Consumption and Society at AMBS, has been researching how parents and employers navigate this transition. Her work has a particular focus on fathers who take periods of solo leave, as well as the experiences of SME (small and medium sized) employers and employees navigating these challenges.
She has contributed to various government inquiries, acted as an academic lead on the current Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) parental leave review, and also sat on the academic advisory board for Working Families, the UK’s national charity for working parents and carers.
Fathers on Leave: the importance of solo care
Shared Parental Leave (SPL), introduced in the UK just over a decade ago, allows eligible parents to share up to 50 weeks of leave during a child’s first year. While the policy was designed to encourage greater involvement from fathers, take-up has remained low.
Research by Professor Banister and colleagues from Manchester Metropolitan University has focused on fathers who took SPL. Their research, conducted over a period of five years, demonstrates how early periods of solo care can shape longer-term patterns of shared parenting, and can also benefit women’s careers. Given SPL relies on a maternal transfer model, the research highlights the importance of policy reform to enable more fathers to take leave independently.
As Professor Banister says: "Providing the conditions for fathers to be involved in care during the first year of parenthood is crucial, as it can establish patterns of shared caregiving that persist over time. This has important implications not only for family life, but also for women’s labour market participation."
SMEs: Small businesses, big challenges
Professor Banister’s work also draws attention to the gap between formal policy design and everyday workplace realities, particularly within SMEs. SMEs make up the vast majority of UK businesses yet are often underrepresented in research and policy discussions on parental leave.
ESRC funded work with colleagues from Middlesex, Leeds and Manchester Universities, and in collaboration with Working Families and the Fatherhood Institute, has highlighted how SME employers face distinct challenges when supporting employees through the transition to parenthood. Compared to larger organisations, SMEs typically have fewer financial and administrative resources, limited access to specialist HR support, and less capacity to absorb staff absence.
Adds Professor Banister: "Our findings show how SMEs experience distinct pressures. Some have minimal knowledge of entitlements, while others find parental leave policies overly complex. Many also struggle to find appropriate and affordable cover for staff who take leave."
At the same time, the research team found SMEs can offer more flexible and relational approaches to managing work and care, with decisions often shaped through direct negotiation between employers and employees. This creates a more nuanced picture, in which organisational size can sometimes shape the kinds of trade-offs and adaptations that are possible.
Key insights and recommendations
Taken together, this body of work highlights a number of key insights:
- Early periods of solo care by fathers can shape longer-term patterns of shared parenting including both practical care and elements of the mental load.
- Many fathers who take leave continue to organise work around family responsibilities, years after their leave ended.
- Some fathers who take leave became more open about caregiving responsibilities at work and more willing to prioritise family life over career progression.
- Mothers were often able to return to work earlier or pursue career progression because they had confidence in their partner's caregiving abilities.
- SMEs face distinct but often overlooked constraints when supporting employees through the transition to parenthood.
Policy priorities
In the short term, these findings point to a number of clear policy priorities:
- Extending paid paternity leave to six weeks would provide fathers with meaningful opportunities to engage in early caregiving.
- Increasing statutory pay would make all types of leave more financially viable for families.
- A review of eligibility criteria would help ensure that different forms of leave are accessible to the full diversity of working parents.
In the longer term, Professor Banister says there is a need for a more fundamental overhaul of the parental leave system. She says the current framework has developed incrementally, resulting in a patchwork of policies that do not always work together coherently or achieve their intended aims. A more integrated approach is required to ensure that the system effectively supports families, employers and broader goals of gender equality.
She adds: "As well as ensuring children receive the best start in life, with both parents having the time to care for and bond with their baby, getting this right and supporting the transition to parenthood is essential for establishing sustained patterns of shared care that are vital for progressing gender equality in both the workplace and the home."
Resources
Emma talks about her research in conversation with Emma Hughes, Senior Lecturer in Employment Studies at the Work and Equalities Institute.
https://youtu.be/gbHFjA0CTGk
SPL video casebook:
https://workingfamilies.org.uk/shared-parental-leave-videos/
Conversation article highlighting the impact of fathers taking extended leave to care for their child:
https://theconversation.com/ten-fathers-took-extended-leave-to-care-for-their-babies-how-their-family-life-changed-286378
Conversation article highlighting the need to consider SMEs in discussions around parental leave reform:
https://theconversation.com/parental-leave-reform-needs-to-consider-small-and-medium-businesses-262366
Journal article focused on fathers and SPL:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gwao.12813