A flagship UK policy designed to allow parents to share time off after having a baby has been branded a failure after a decade, with experts declaring a 'lost decade' of progress on parental rights.
A Decade of Disappointing Data
New data obtained by the Guardian reveals an alarmingly low uptake of Shared Parental Leave (SPL) among some of the country's largest public sector employers. Over the past five years, just one in every 64 requests for parental leave was for SPL.
The figures, gathered through Freedom of Information requests, show that from a total of 274,755 parental leave requests across NHS England, Scotland and Wales, HMRC, the Ministry of Justice, and the Department for Work and Pensions between 2020 and 2025, a mere 4,264 were for shared parental leave. This represents just 1.55% of all requests.
The policy, introduced in 2015, gives parents the right to split up to 52 weeks of leave, including up to 39 weeks of statutory pay. However, its architects now admit it has failed to deliver the promised 'culture change'.
Architects and Experts Condemn Policy Failure
Former Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson, who introduced the policy as the minister for employment relations, said the low take-up was 'disappointing'. She placed blame on successive Conservative governments for lacking belief in the scheme.
"It's definitely a policy that hasn't achieved its potential, partly because it hasn't had the kind of the backing, the energy, the encouragement of a government that believed in it," Swinson stated.
Her criticism is echoed by campaigners and researchers. A key study from the University of Bath last year concluded the policy had 'fallen flat', with no increase in uptake or length of leave taken by fathers since its inception. An official government evaluation in 2023 found only 1% of eligible mothers and 5% of eligible fathers used SPL.
A Policy for the Wealthy, Not the Working Class
Further analysis reveals the policy has become skewed towards higher earners, creating a stark class divide in who can afford to spend time with a new baby.
Analysis of HMRC data by the campaign group The Dad Shift shows that in the 2024-25 period, a staggering 95% of shared parental leave claims were made by fathers in the UK's top half of earners – those earning more than the average salary of £37,800.
The share of SPL payments going to the bottom 50% of earners has declined almost every year since the policy began. Where around one in ten claims came from average- or low-paid fathers in 2015, the figure is now closer to one in twenty.
"A lost decade on, it's clear shared parental leave is good for a handful of wealthier families in the south-east but just doesn't work for most working fathers and non-birthing parents," said George Gabriel, co-founder of The Dad Shift. "Who gets time with their new babies has become a clear class issue."
Calls for Bold Reform, Not 'Tinkering'
With the policy widely deemed broken, attention turns to potential solutions. The government launched an 18-month review of the parental leave system in July, which MPs have called a 'watershed moment'.
However, they warned that 'tinkering around the edges of a broken system will let down working parents'. Minister for Employment Rights, Kate Dearden, acknowledged the system 'needs improving' and pointed to the review and measures in the Workers' Rights Bill.
Key flaws identified include the requirement for mothers to 'give up' some of their maternity leave to create shared leave, and a lack of dedicated, well-paid leave for fathers. Jo Swinson urged the government to be bold and implement 'take it or leave it' time off for dads.
Baroness JoJo Penn, who helped develop the original policy, sought to amend the Workers' Rights Bill to increase statutory paternity leave from two to six weeks at 90% of salary. She warned: "The case for change is overwhelming, and at the moment I worry that the government has another year for its review but we won't get any real change at the end of it."
A decade after its introduction, the consensus is clear: shared parental leave has not delivered its promised revolution in workplace culture and family life, leaving a generation of parents, particularly those on lower incomes, without the support they were promised.
