Paid paternity leave for police in England and Wales is to double, after the Guardian revealed last year that officers were “mocked and ostracised” for taking time off to spend with their babies.
The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has increased the amount of paid parental and adoption leave for officers from one week to two across all forces, with fathers’ leave upped to be in line with mothers’.
Before the change, only a quarter of forces offered two weeks’ full pay, with others offering one week on full pay and the second week on statutory pay. This resulted in only 40% of officers in the latter group taking the second week’s leave, compared with 88% of those in the first group. Civilian staff in the Metropolitan police were entitled to three weeks’ paternity leave at full pay.
The policing minister Sarah Jones said: “Police officers work tirelessly to protect the public, so it is right that new fathers are better supported to spend time with their families. By expanding police paternity leave, we are recognising the importance of family life.”
The government is now coming under increased pressure to improve paternity leave across the public sector, which campaigners argue offers poor and patchy leave for fathers. The win for police officers has galvanised a campaign for better paternity leave for military fathers, with the Conservative peer Joanna Penn tabling an amendment to the armed forces bill that would triple paternity leave to six weeks for serving personnel.
The government-led tri-forces survey last year found that nearly 30% of families in the armed forces were separated for more than three months in the last year. A survey of 450 serving parents by the campaign group The Dad Shift found that more than 95% agreed the current paternity offer was not enough.
“We ask so much of our military families,” said Penn. “The least we can do is give new fathers the chance to properly support their partners and bond with their babies.”
Campaigners, backed by MPs on the women and equalities select committee, are pushing for a change to give fathers six weeks of paternity leave at 90% of pay. The UK’s statutory paternity leave of two weeks, paid at £184.03 a week, is one of the worst in Europe. Recent research found one in three UK fathers took no paternity leave after the birth of their child. An 18-month government review of the UK’s parental leave system is expected to report in December.
Joel Brady, a police inspector who was part of the campaign, said the policy change would give thousands of fathers in the police more “precious time” with their babies. “This is a massively positive step and great news for policing fathers who want to be there for their partners and involved in their children’s lives,” he said. “I’m optimistic that the government will now listen to dads and increase the amount of leave available to all of us.”
More than 20 organisations – including a new group of Labour MPs that has been lobbying ministers to improve rights for fathers – have written to Andy Burnham urging him to commit to the men and boys’ agenda, which gathered pace under Keir Starmer.
In November, the government launched the first men’s health strategy for England, and Starmer assigned the then deputy prime minister, David Lammy, to lead work across the government to improve outcomes for men and boys. Writing to the new prime minister, the group said: “Taken together, these developments represent something more significant than a series of individual policies. They represent the beginning of a new consensus: one that rejects the false choice between supporting men and supporting women.”
George Gabriel, a co-founder of The Dad Shift, said: “Times are changing. This is the most active generation of dads there’s ever been and momentum is clearly building across the public sector for better paternity leave.
“If Andy Burnham wants to prove his is a cost of living government then, as their review of parental leave concludes later this year, we hope they’ll get alongside working families at one of the moments that matters the most.”
