Government plans fathers' day gift

What have you got planned for your Dad this Sunday? Breakfast in bed, an extra sports' channel...or six months' additional paid paternity leave?

The extra leave for fathers is among the Government's planned family-friendly legislative changes. It sounds good in principle and indeed works well in Scandinavia. But just how willing will our British Dads be to take it up? Statistics still suggest that men earn more than women and so from a financial perspective fathers may not be able to afford the time off even if they wanted it. And will fathers want to take six months off to enter what it is still a predominantly female world of toddler groups rather than stay at work?

The changes will not happen until April 2009 at the earliest and in the meantime the current two weeks of paternity leave will apply. This leave must be taken in one two-week block and is paid at the statutory flat rate (currently £112.75 per week). The additional paternity leave which the Government plans to introduce will have a crucial difference. Fathers will only be entitled to take it after the mother has returned to work and no less then six months after the baby's birthday but before their first birthday. This is intended to enable both mother and father to take a substantial time off during the first year of a child's life without jeopardising their respective careers. However it remains to be seen whether it will translate well into the UK's labour laws and working practices.