Parental leave reforms don't go far enough

Paid leave for prenatal appointments, provisions for breastfeeding and equal pay for parental leave missing from new regulations say campaigners

Last week the government announced changes to parental leave rules which will give women a right to up to a year’s maternity leave, but enable her to return to work after two weeks if she wishes and share the remaining leave and maternity payments with her partner, as long as they qualify.

Fathers will be entitled to unpaid leave from work to attend up to two ante-natal appointments, and adopters will be entitled to the same pay and leave as birth parents.

All employees will now be able to request flexible working.

Ros Bragg, from Valuing Maternity, a campaign for better employment protection for pregnant women and new mothers said: “We are really pleased that women’s rights are protected for up to 52 weeks of maternity leave and that women have the option to share leave with fathers and partners.

But she added that the campaign had concerns about other aspects of the reforms.

In a guest blog, Emma Pickett, lactation consultant and co-chair of Association of Breastfeeding Mothers, called for clear rights to breastfeed on return to work.

In the UK, a breastfeeding mother had the legal right to ‘rest’ but not to express and store her milk.

Health and safety guidance might suggest that an employer could provide a room and a time for a mother to pump but they are only required to allow her to rest.

“We don’t want to rest. Give us 10 minutes to use our double electric breast pump perhaps 3 times in a working day and most of us will be able to continue to give our baby’s breast milk for as long as we want to,” she said.

“It will make continuing to breastfeed while working normal and manageable. We need never assume that a woman returning early to work would of course be ending breastfeeding.”

Valuing Maternity produced a checklist of measures which would promote real equality in shared parental leave.

These include paid time off for fathers and partners to attend anti-natal appointments, four weeks paid leave for all fathers and partners and statutory pay for paternity leave and additional paternity leave to match maternity pay.

Protect our family planning services

Cuts to sexual health services could lead to a rise in abortions and STIs, charities claim.

A new report commissioned by two of the UK’s leading family planning charities claims cuts to contraception and sexual health services could lead to an increase in the number of unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

Increases which could saddle the UK with a £136.7 billion NHS and welfare burden by 2020.

Last year the Advisory Group on Contraception found that 3.2m women of child bearing age faced restrictions to accessing contraception.

And in the areas where restrictions were greatest, the abortion rate was 9.75 per cent higher than areas with no restrictions.

The Family Planning Association (FPA) and Brook commissioned Unprotected Nation to look at what might happen if access to sexual health services remained the same, got better or worsened between now and 2020.

If access remains the same, unintended pregnancy and STIs could cost the UK between £84.4 billion and £127 billion.

If cuts continue and there is worsened access – with more people being denied access to contraceptive methods and information – the additional cost to the NHS plus wider public sector costs could total between£8.3 billion and £10 billion, a tenth of the total NHS budget in 2012-13.

If there is improved access, the NHS and the public sector could save between £3.7 billion and £5.1 billion by 2020.

Simon Blake, Brook’s chief executive, said that the national sexual health and teenage pregnancy strategies had ended and the NHS was under intense pressure to make savings.

“This report makes very clear just how short-sighted restrictions to contraception services are – particularly for young people who have to navigate this void alongside a black hole in sex and relationships education programmes,” he said

“The wheels of this crisis are firmly in motion.

"Investment in sexual health saves money, but if national and local government ignore the warnings and continue stripping away services, advice and information, the bleak predictions in this report will come true,” added Dr Audrey Simpson, acting chief executive, FPA.

As a result, the charities have launched a campaign called XES - We Can't Go Backward to raise awareness about the consequences of cuts to sexual health services.

They are asking supporters to sign up to a Bill of Rights to guarantee women accessible, confidential and timely sexual health and contraception services across the UK, write to their MP asking them to support these aims and to rate their own experiences of contraception and sexual health services on an on-line map.

Anne Connolly, a GP in Bradford and chair of the Primary Care Women’s Health Forum, said: “Maintaining progress requires investment and if we are brave enough to invest money at a time when there is pressure to disinvest there are massive cost savings as well as quality of life savings to be made.”

Workplace progress on equality slow

More companies have equal opportunities policies, but fewer monitor recruitment, pay and promotion.

The latest Workplace Employment Relations Study was released last week.

This government-sponsored research measures areas like employee satisfaction, training, working hours and equal opportunities in public and private organisations of all sizes across the UK.

The report looked at all workplaces with 5 or more employees in the British economy, excluding workplaces in agriculture, forestry, fishing, and mining and quarrying.

It represents 35 per cent of all workplaces and 90 per cent of all employees in Britain; almost 750,000 workplaces and 23.3 million employees.

The study, carried out during 2011-12, found the majority, 51 per cent, of workers in the organisations sampled were women.

Nearly a tenth were from ethnic minorities, nearly a quarter are over 50 and nearly a tenth are foreign nationals.

The number of disabled workers had risen from 1 per cent in 2004 when the last survey was completed, to 2 per cent in 2011.

Three quarters of firms had written equal opportunities policies, compared with 67 per cent in 2004, and 

in 2011 these were more likely to mention age and sexual orientation.

Fewer mentioned discrimination on the basis of gender – 82 per cent, compared with 87 per cent in 2004.

A third of all workplaces had a strategic plan covering employee diversity with objectives, compared to 29 per cent in 2004.  These were more likely to be in place in large organisations.

However, few employers monitor recruitment, pay and promotion by equality characteristics like age, gender or disability.  Only 3 per cent compare relative pay rates, 7 per cent monitor promotion and 14 per cent monitor recruitment and selection.

Only 8 per cent have special procedures to attract job applicants from women and disabled people, and even less take special measures to attract workers from ethnic minorities and older people.  Fewer companies operate these types of schemes than in 2004.

And a quarter of firms in 2011 offered Equal Opportunities training, compared with a fifth in 2004.

When it comes to flexible working, the picture is mixed.

The proportion of workplaces where some employees were able to work from home or work compressed hours increased between 2004 and 2011.

In contrast, the proportion of workplaces with job sharing or reduced hours fell, and the proportion of employers offering flexitime remained the same.

And more mangers now think it is up to individual employees to manage their work and family responsibilities, 76 per cent in 2011, compared to 66 per cent in 2004.

Baby boom pressure on maternity services

England is 5,000 midwives short claims Royal College.

The Royal College of Midwives [RCM] has just published its annual State of Maternity Services report.

The report quotes figures from the Office for National Statistics which show the number of new babies born, especially in England, is booming.

There were 688,120 babies born in England in 2011, 124,000 or 22 per cent more than in 2001, the highest number since 1971.

This trend is set to continue, at least until 2014, when 743,000 babies are expected to be born in England, a third more than in 2001.

And the number of older mothers is also increasing, up 81 per cent in England since 2001 - and older mothers can experience more complications during pregnancy and birth than younger women.

Yet the number of midwives has barely kept pace with these changes.

There were 3,000 more midwives in England in 2012 than 2001, up 19 per cent.

The Royal College of Midwives estimates that England is short of 5,000 full time midwives, and this shortage is affecting the quality of care they can provide.

It quotes a Bounty Word of Mum survey in 2012 which found 20 per cent of respondents did not feel supported by the NHS during their pregnancy and birth, 40 per cent said they saw a different midwife each time and 30 per cent said they were not adequately supported after the birth.

In 2011 half of the midwives in England were over 45 years old, compared to a third in 2002.

The government plans an extra 2,576 training places in 2012/13, which should help reverse this trend, so the number of training places in England should reach 6,000 for the first time – a development the report hails as a ‘real milestone’.

But the RCM said had recently received reports from newly-qualified midwives saying that they were finding it hard to find work.

“Student midwives’ hard work and taxpayers’ money invested in their valuable training should not be squandered by a short-sighted approach to cost reduction,” said the report.

According to the report, the baby boom has trailed off in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, but the RCM believes this should an opportunity to improve care, not cut midwife numbers.

Scotland has maintained training numbers, and the RCM believes there is not currently a shortage, but there could be in future, because of the age of current midwives.

The RCM has put Wales 'on watch', as training numbers have been trimmed and midwife numbers are falling.