In the UK, fathers are granted just two weeks of paternity leave—336 hours to bond with their newborn, support their partner, and step into the life-changing role of fatherhood. But is it enough? 336 Hours dives deep into the realities of paternity leave, exploring the challenges families face under current policies. This documentary raises critical questions about equality, family dynamics, and the societal value of fatherhood.
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00:00The UK currently has the worst paternity pay and leave in Europe and among the worst in the OECD.
00:06Fathers, if they are eligible, around 20% of them are not, can take a maximum of two weeks paid
00:12leave at a maximum rate of £184 a week, less than half the national living wage.
00:19My fiancé and I recently welcomed our son Alistair into the world and I can safely say
00:25becoming a parent has been the most joyous thing to happen to me.
00:28Having a child's been a life-changing experience. Like most parents, it's altered my relationship
00:33with family, friends and also with work. When Alistair was born, I took the full two weeks
00:39of statutory paternity leave that I'm entitled to under UK law. While KNTV gave me my full
00:46salary throughout the two weeks, additional paid leave and constant support to attend
00:50key milestones throughout my fiancé's pregnancy and since Alistair's birth, I understand this
00:56costs businesses and is not sustainable for all SMEs, should it be the place of government or
01:01businesses to support parents in my situation. In this film, we're going to dive into all things
01:07fatherhood as paternity leave and pay in the UK could be on the cusp of change.
01:18So we're just about to set off to work. It's the first time I brought Alistair into work,
01:22the first time that my colleagues would have met him. So yeah, it's bring your kid to work day,
01:28isn't it Ali man? He's done really, really well. Everybody's been really, you know, loads of warm
01:33welcomes and it's been great going around. It's been brilliant. I think the conversation around
01:38parenthood is changing. It's been changing for quite some time. It is also something that's
01:45going to be a conversation that is going to change and is going to have to be addressed in
01:50the corridors of power. We definitely feel strongly that there's a gap in the education
01:55around then. And I think that also translates to a gap in the knowledge that certain policy makers
02:03might have about just the role of a dad in modern day. So I think this is coming at a really
02:10interesting time. Got a new government, obviously in the UK as well. And whether that might speed up
02:17that process, we don't know. It's a very, very interesting time for that conversation. So
02:22hopefully, through my experience, others can find out and be educated themselves. Because this is
02:30the new priority. This is number one priority. And that's the most important thing. Calls for
02:35more extensive paternity coverage have grown louder in the UK in recent months. Keir Starmer's
02:41government have vowed to review paternity leave registration in their first year in office. And
02:47the person I've come to Westminster to meet today is one of those people who is holding the government
02:51to that promise. So the Dad Shift is a new campaign bringing together men, dads and co-parents to
02:56campaign for better paternity leave in the UK. So we're calling on the government to bring in a new,
03:00better statutory paternity leave offer that properly supports British families. How did it
03:05come about? There are a bunch of us who all of us have kids, whether some of us just a few months
03:09ago, some of us two or three years old, some of us in their teens. But all of us kind of share this
03:14desire to make sure that every dad can get a proper amount of time to spend with their kids,
03:19make it easier for them to be a bigger part of their kids' lives. And we think it's about time
03:23that more dads were showing up to address that. So our job is to keep having these moments where
03:28the campaign breaks through with a different message, and at the same time be working with
03:32MPs and policymakers to start discussing what could the solutions look like and how do we
03:37address this problem? I know that you're not a fan of the term paternity and that you'd like to see
03:42the vocabulary change around that as well. Tell me a little bit about that. Yeah, so paternity leave,
03:46despite the name, is actually not only available for men. It's available for dads, for non-birthing
03:51mums in same-sex relationships, for non-binary parents, and for one half of an adoptive couple,
03:56which may not always be the man. So in and of itself, it's a confusing term. At the moment,
04:00self-employed fathers are entitled to absolutely no paternity leave at all. And we think they should
04:05be included in any new improved paternity leave policy. That's what you see in other countries.
04:10Labour are going to be, or have said that they're going to be, reviewing the legislation around
04:14paternity leave in their first year in office. How would that be enforced by the government,
04:18or what are you hoping to bring to the government? So we want the government to take a meaningful
04:22step towards substantial, affordable, and equal. So for affordable, for example, that would be based
04:27off people's current salary. So we would want for paternity leave to be paid at 100% or near
04:32100% of salary. That makes sure that people are not losing out when they take paternity leave,
04:37and that at the moment is the single biggest barrier to lots of people taking paternity leave.
04:41Substantial means a lot longer than we currently have. Two weeks is not even close to enough.
04:46We see six weeks as a real bare minimum, but we would like a lot more than that. Realistic that
04:50we're not going to jump to a Swedish-style system straight away, and they do pay much higher taxes.
04:55But you can look at countries like Slovakia. They offer 28 weeks at 75% pay to new fathers,
05:02and their GDP per capita is half of the UK's. So it's not the case that we can't afford this. We
05:07definitely can, and actually there are really good economic reasons for us to do so as well.
05:11Already we've seen in the new government that there's more of a burden on employers.
05:15Isn't increased paternity just going to increase that burden on employers?
05:20We actually believe that this is good for business, and a lot of businesses want this.
05:23The problem we see is this two-tier system where bigger companies can afford to offer
05:26good policies and smaller companies can't. And we need the government to take action,
05:30because until you can make it clear to employers that a woman is not a baby risk any more than a
05:36father is, you're still going to get employers who wrongly discriminate against women. In order
05:42to fix the problems in our system, we need better ring-fence paternity leave for dads.
05:46Shared parental leave isn't the answer. And I've come here to Maidstone to speak
05:50with a familiar face on KMTV screens, Rob Bailey from the University of Kent Centre for Journalism.
05:55And I'm going to be talking to him and his wife Chrissie, who are just about to embark on that
06:00journey of parenthood. How's it all going? 31 weeks at this stage. How's it all going?
06:05Yeah, about 31 and a half, and touchwood. It is all going well so far.
06:11What's it been like, all those different stages?
06:14We've had a long, long, long journey to get here through IVF. This is our second attempt at IVF,
06:19and, you know, kind of a very difficult build-up to all of this. But obviously then the good news
06:24that we got pregnant again, and we've been very lucky, two IVF attempts, and both of them took.
06:29This one has been, you know, has been really, really great. And we're kind of anxious,
06:33I think probably because of what we've been through, we've been very anxious along the way.
06:37What are you and Chrissie most worried about with that two weeks?
06:42In our particular situation, my wife has a visual impairment, so she can't drive,
06:48and also there are some things which she needs kind of help with. Baby's going to bring new
06:52challenges into our life where we don't yet know how that's going to work and what things
06:58might be difficult. This thing which people keep telling me, midwives keep telling me,
07:02this is the most important job you'll ever have. This job is the most, you know, being a parent is
07:06the most important job you'll ever have. But I'm supposed to squeeze my training period for that
07:10job into what in my actual career would be regarded as a kind of standard holiday. So
07:15those uncertainties, the kind of how is this two weeks going to pan out, and the fact that you
07:18can't plan for it, and it might well be, you know, worst case scenario, you get very little time of
07:24that to actually really experience being a parent at home, it kind of scares me.
07:29There's two different conversations that go on. You've got one which is the financial and the
07:34political, but then there's also the emotional and the, you know, the family side and having to
07:42build those skills and to adapt to that. And it's balancing those two things, isn't it? I mean,
07:47and I don't know whether there is one universal answer that would apply to all of us, all of us
07:54dads and mums across society, about how long you need, but the benefits, I mean, you're saying what
08:00would be the benefit to society, but the benefit is that maybe we have better family units and
08:06stronger family units and more resilient family units that help us bring up kids in a better way.
08:13I want to do a really good job of being a parent, and I think a big part of that is kind of starting
08:18it off the right way, and there needs to be a discussion about how dads can play a bigger role
08:25in the early days. The first stage is just having the discussion. We've got a playroom downstairs,
08:30but the nursery just in here. We continued our conversation along with Rob's wife Chrissie
08:37in their nursery. Rob's amazing, and I know he's going to support me every way he can,
08:42and then as soon as he goes back to work, not only am I going to be anxious being there by
08:46myself, having to deal with everything, but also I'm going to be really sad knowing that you're
08:51going to be sad at work, missing not being with me and the baby at home, so we're both going to
08:57really be missing each other. I think that's going to be quite hard. And what, how does that make you
09:00feel Rob? I'd say the worst nightmare is that some challenge kind of arises on a day when I'm at work
09:06and maybe I'm in a meeting and I can't be looking at my phone, and then I come out of that meeting
09:09and see missed calls and messages of I don't know what to do, can, you know, that would, I mean, it's
09:14just going to be the most difficult thing, and I think we're both hoping that obviously that doesn't
09:19happen, but it's something that you worry about. Do you have any thoughts yourself on like maybe
09:24how long it should be extended by, how it should be shared, are there any models that it could be?
09:29As soon as dad goes back to work, the mum is learning and continuing and doing all the things,
09:34and then probably when dad comes home saying, oh this is how we do it, I've done it this way,
09:40this works, it's kind of like teaching you, but equally it should be a joint discovery and we
09:45should be learning together, and so two weeks seems like not enough time to learn all these
09:50new things, all these new skills. Amazing for you guys, it's a really exciting time and just wishing
09:56you all the very best. A midwife's role is to support mum through pregnancy and labour, but
10:01their role is so much more than that. They're there to guide dad or the birthing partner through those
10:07early stages once baby comes along, and that's what I've come to Medway Maritime Hospital to
10:12talk to one midwife about. So how can midwives like yourself, healthcare professionals, how can
10:19they help the non-birthgiving partner be more involved and contribute to those early stages?
10:29So I would encourage midwives to encourage their mothers to bring their partners along, because
10:34those are the times that we'll get those one-to-ones with them. Outside of that it's very difficult
10:40to encourage the non-birthing people, so if they can come along to the antenatal classes, and also
10:46for us to ask them questions, how are you feeling about baby coming, what are your thoughts on
10:51leave, what are you worried about, so yeah we can only have these conversations if the non-birthing
10:56people come to appointments with their partners. How does that impact the mother's well-being and
11:02the overall family dynamic? It's very positive, it helps mother's well-being because it helps you
11:08know that you're not alone. It's very easy to be in a relationship or marriage and feel alone,
11:13especially in that process. Anything that you can do to expand your time together as a family,
11:19do it to the best of your ability. Are you finding the information around that's given to
11:25mums and to their partners, do you find that that is keeping up with the times as well? I would say
11:32life is evolving and changing, and there is so much that we are learning that we didn't know
11:37before. It's conversations like this that are helping the health care system get better, but
11:42things are going in the right direction, but we still got a while to go. But just encouragement
11:46to fathers and birthing people that their role is so important and not to underestimate it.
11:52336 hours. That's how long dads currently have to adapt to, and of course enjoy their new status
12:00before going back to work. It's a fleeting yet significant moment in a child's life,
12:05and it's the start of a major transformation for parents. Through the voices of soon-to-be fathers,
12:10activists pushing for reform, and midwives on the front line, one message has come through
12:15during the course of this documentary. Paternity leave isn't just about time,
12:19it's about the perception and value of the role of fathers. It's about supporting birth partners,
12:25and it's about ensuring every child has a strong and stable foundation to begin their lives with.
12:30So while a solution which pleases all might not currently exist,
12:34the conversation around finding one is growing louder. Could the law change by the time we have
12:40our next child, or might we be waiting until our son has children of his own?