Equality | How to use Shared Parental Leave

Historically, the business world hasn’t given much credence to the concept that caring for a new-born baby can be a wholly collaborative effort.

Despite the concept of rigid gender roles changing dramatically over the past three decades and women’s equality in the workplace becoming a hot-button issue, many companies still simply expect a new mother to take up to a year off from their career to care for their child, whilst the expectation for new fathers is just two weeks.

It may, therefore, be surprising to some to realise that they are eligible for a relatively new piece of government legislation that allows parents to share childcare, and still maintain their career however they see fit.

Whilst the concept is still relatively underutilised – in fact just one per cent of eligible couples have used it – recent mother Kat Knocker, Co-Founder of Tails.com and her partner recently opted for Shared Parental Leave (SPL); HR Grapevine caught up with her to find out more.