Working fathers

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has launched a campaign to raise awareness of fathers’ rights at work. A government survey shows that 56% of fathers with children aged 16 and under would look for an employer who offers flexible working when choosing a new job and 91% of those with children aged five and under think it is important to have the option to take paid paternity leave.

But a fifth of working fathers with children aged 16 or under – who, by law, are entitled to request flexible working from their employer – did not know if their company offered flexible working to fathers.  

More than a third of parents with children under five did not realise that paid paternity leave is required by law and 22% wrongly assumed that fathers only needed to ask for this leave when the baby was born or before it was eight weeks old. To benefit from legal paternity rights, fathers must speak with their employer 15 weeks before the baby is due.