Blogger praises Government proposals on parental leave (From Croydon Guardian)

Dadbloguk authour John Adams praises Government proposals on parental leave

10:00am Friday 8th February 2013 in News

The author of a parenting blog has praised Government proposals for flexible working and shared parental leave.

John Adams, author of Dadbloguk, questioned Employment Relations Minister, Jo Swinson, during an hour long Twitter Q&A on Tuesday.

Mr Adams, a father-of-two, launched his blog three months ago and writes about life as his children's primary carer.

He was invited by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills to ask questions on new Government proposals on behalf of other parents.

As part of the reform parents will be able to share up to a year's leave after the birth of a child.

The new system parents will also enable parents to choose how best to share their 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: "The Government is clearly recognising the fact that men want to get more involved with childcare and families want this flexibility.

"However, there are still some shortfalls in the plans. There is no mention of support for self employed people and I was contacted by a number of breastfeeding activists who have expressed concerns about being able to express milk during the working day."

Praising Ms Swinson's openness during the debate, Mr Adams added: "It was refreshing to see a Government Minister engaging directly with the electorate and Jo Swinson was very good at taking on every question put to her."

To read a full transcript of the Q&A session visit http://dadbloguk.com