Blogger to question Government minister on shared parental leave (From Croydon Guardian)

Croydon blogger to question Government minister on shared parental leave

11:52am Tuesday 5th February 2013 in News

A Croydon blogger will be questioning a government minister on new proposals for shared parental leave.

John Adams, author of Dadbloguk, is participating in a Twitter Q&A with Employment Relations Minister, Jo Swinson this afternoon.

Mr Adams, a father-of-two who writes about life as his children's primary carer, will be asking questions on behalf of other parents, after being invited to participate in the session by the Department of Business Innovation and Skills.

The Government's reform of flexible parental leave will allow parents to share up to a year's leave after the birth of a child.

Under the new system parents will be able choose how they share the children's care.

The Government plan to legislate on this later this year and will introduce the changes to flexible working in 2014, with changes to flexible parental leave introduced in 2015.

Mr Adams said: "I am delighted to take part. I have been sent lots of question, such as how will this effect maternity and paternity pay and what about men who cannot afford to do it.

"I have also been asked to ask the Minister why men don't always take up their paternity entitlement and I am interested to know whether the proposals will take sexism out of the system.

"If people continue to tweet me questions I will try and get through them all."

The Q&A starts at 2.30pm. To follow the discussion use the hashtag #parents and follow the twitter accounts @dadbloguk and @bisgovuk.