Bright Horizons Research: Parental Leave and Family Support Benchmark UK 2023
This research, from more than 500 organisations, is presented in an at-a-glance format, so organisations can easily see which benefits, policies and provisions are the baseline for parental leave support, and which ones will give them a competitive edge.
This year, the research also looked beyond the parent transition into provisions for ongoing parents and for carers of adult dependants.
Key findings
- There is a growth in the provision of inclusive family leave not tied to gender or role in parenting. 56% reported some level of role-inclusive leave.
- The most frequently offered inclusive leave is 6 weeks and the average length of inclusive leave is 14 weeks. So, inclusive leave offerings are clustered around 6 weeks, while some much fuller offers push up the overall average.
- For maternity/adoption, 26 weeks of fully-paid leave is becoming firmly established as the benchmark in several sectors.
- There has been a small drop in the overall proportion of employers reporting enhanced maternity/adoption, paternity or shared parental leave above statutory pay.
- There is a consistent pattern of practical supports provided by employers, alongside paid leave, suggesting that their budget is being shared between other offerings - such as coaching, care, phased returns - and the leave itself.
In partnership with Bright Horizons Work+Family Solutions
Bright Horizons is dedicated to providing the best in class work+family solutions.