Transitioning out of and back into work following the birth of a child can fundamentally alter the shape of the working lives of parents, particularly mothers. Women in the UK adjust their labour market behaviour after childbirth more than men and this widens the existing gender inequalities in the labour market. Family-friendly policies are important for addressing these inequalities. The introduction of Shared Parental Leave in the UK in April 2015 was intended to help parents share child-related responsibilities and encourage mothers to return to work earlier.

This policy brief, authored by Dr Joanna Clifton-Sprigg, Professor Eleonora Fichera, Professor Melanie Jones and Dr Ezgi Kaya, summarises the findings of research into the success of the Shared Parental Leave policy and makes recommendations for policy changes. The research focuses primarily on fathers as those encouraged by the policy to take up or extend leave and compares leave uptake between parents just before and after the policy introduction using large-scale nationally representative data.