Time off for dads

From 2007, fathers will be paid £112.75 per week for a fortnight's paternity leave. This may be progress but it still gives limited rights to working fathers and is only centred round the birth of a baby.

Unpaid parental leave

At the moment, parents are entitled to take 13 weeks unpaid leave to care for a child under five. The leave must be taken in blocks of a week or more and a father can only have four weeks off a year. When it was introduced in 1999, the government estimated that only two per cent of fathers would take it.

The main reasons for the poor take-up are:

• Fathers can't afford to take unpaid leave
• If paternity leave is only paid at a flat rate, this will exclude a good number of fathers too

At the moment, statutory maternity pay is paid at the rate of 90 per cent of earnings for the first six weeks and 92 per cent or more of that payment is funded by the government. We think it would be a good idea if Paternity Leave was funded in the same way. This would mean that there was little burden on small businesses as they would not have to meet the cost of paternity leave themselves.

Much of the work that went into the government's review, 'Work and parents - competitiveness and choice', and later the consultation around the Work and Families Act, has concentrated on persuading businesses that there is a case for more family-friendly policies.

But of course many business leaders say that there is no case for men being paid to stay away from the office. On the other hand, many employees say that the chance to spend more time with their families would make them happier, less stressed and more productive.