A powerful personal account has highlighted a critical gap in the UK's parental leave system, leaving self-employed and freelance parents without any statutory paternity support. Ruby Bayley from Edinburgh has written about the paralysing anxiety she and her partner face as they consider delaying starting a family, hoping for legal change.
The Joy of Leave and the Pain of Exclusion
Bayley was deeply moved by an article by Ilyas Nagdee published on 14 January, which described the transformative eight months of paternity leave he took. The piece celebrated the joy, closeness, and rebalancing that meaningful time off can bring to a new family. However, for Bayley and her self-employed partner, the article also underscored a painful reality. The current conversation about extending paternity pay completely overlooks those who work for themselves.
Under the present rules, employed fathers are entitled to two weeks of statutory paternity leave. For self-employed individuals like Bayley's partner, this basic safety net does not exist. Taking time off for a newborn means facing a stark choice: taking completely unpaid leave, losing all income, or trying to juggle brand-new care responsibilities with work during one of life's most intense periods.
A Family in Limbo
The couple's situation has created a painful state of limbo. They very much want to have a child, but feel frozen by the practical and financial implications of the early months without support. Bayley reveals they are even considering postponing their plans to start a family, pinning hopes on the government's ongoing review of parental leave. This decision is made more urgent by the fact that Bayley acknowledges having limited years left to make such a choice.
The fact that deeply personal family planning decisions are being dictated by employment status alone is, Bayley argues, profoundly wrong. Extended paternity leave has the potential to challenge entrenched inequalities around care and support partners more equally. Yet, if reform does not explicitly include the self-employed, it risks cementing the idea that shared parenting and early bonding are privileges only for those in secure, salaried employment.
A Call for Modern, Inclusive Reform
Bayley's letter serves as a direct plea to policymakers. If the UK is serious about valuing care and family life, then the realities of modern work must be recognised. The growing number of freelancers, contractors, and self-employed professionals cannot continue to be an afterthought in social policy. Any meaningful reform must ensure that all families, regardless of how they work, have the chance to be together at the very beginning.
The exclusion from paternity leave adds another layer of stress and instability to the already precarious working lives of many self-employed people. For true equity, the system must evolve to support every type of family structure in the 21st-century economy.
