Parents gathered outside Mandela House in Cambridge on Monday morning carrying milk, flowers and eggs – everyday items chosen for one reason: they last longer than statutory paternity leave.
The action, organised by campaign group The Dad Shift, is part of a nationwide push to pressure councils into improving their paternity leave offers. At 9.15am, parents handed the items to local authority leaders, turning a simple visual stunt into a pointed critique of workplace policy.
The message is straightforward – and uncomfortable. Across the UK, most fathers working in local government still receive just two weeks’ leave after the birth of a child.
Councils lag behind the private sector
New research by The Dad Shift, based on Freedom of Information responses from more than 150 councils, paints a stark picture. Despite employing around two million people, the vast majority of local authorities offer only the statutory minimum of two weeks’ paternity leave.
Just 16 councils – around 10% – provide more than this. None offer the six weeks at 90% pay that campaigners and many policy experts argue should be the baseline.
Even within those two weeks, pay varies significantly. Around a third of councils offer both weeks at full pay, while most split it between one week at full pay and one at statutory levels. One in ten provide only statutory pay throughout – a level critics say effectively prices out many working-class fathers.
The impact is measurable. Where councils offer enhanced pay, around 90% of eligible fathers take their full leave. Where pay drops after the first week, that figure falls to 75%.
‘Barely any time with their loved ones’
George Gabriel, co-founder of The Dad Shift, says the findings expose a gap between rhetoric and reality for working families.
“Social workers, binmen, librarians, teaching assistants, park wardens – thousands of decent hardworking blokes are being failed when they become dads,” he explains. Current offers leave fathers with “barely any time with their loved ones and even less money”.
While acknowledging that “finances are tight”, Gabriel argued that some councils are already showing improvement is possible. “There’s still space to get on the side of working dads,” he says, urging leaders to give fathers time to support their partners, bond with their babies and “figure out who they’re going to be as fathers”.
‘I used all my annual leave’
For many families, the consequences are immediate and personal. Hussein Nahidh, a Cambridge-based father, describes how the system left him with little real choice. “When my son was born last year, I was entitled to only two weeks of paternity leave,” he says. “I needed to be there for him, and for my wife when she came out of hospital, so I ended up using all my annual leave in one go.”
That experience, he says, reflects a wider shift in expectations. “The world has moved on from a time when childcare automatically fell on women,” he adds. “Dads today want to be properly involved in our kids’ lives from the start. Two weeks of paternity leave just doesn’t allow that.”
Lianna Etkind, also based in Cambridge, says her own experience showed what a different approach can achieve. “When my daughter was born, my partner and I were lucky enough to be able to share parental leave fairly equally,” she said. “It made such a positive difference that both of us had that time to bond with her.”
But she warns that shared parental leave is not working in practice. “It’s taken up by less than 2% of dads,” she says. “It’s not right that most dads and non-birthing parents are excluded from decent time with their babies, and it needs to change.”
Pressure grows on councils – and government
The campaign comes as political pressure begins to build. A group of MPs has written to council leaders urging them to review their paternity leave policies and consider improvements.
MP Maya Ellis is a member of the Communities and Local Government Select Committee. She explains financial constraints are well understood, but warned that they should not become an excuse for inaction.
“There are thousands of hardworking dads and non-birthing parents who are being let down,” she says. While welcoming the government’s ongoing review of parental leave, she adds that councils could act sooner. “So many in the private sector report improved morale and productivity as a result of getting alongside staff at one of the most important times in their lives.”
From April, new laws will give fathers the right to take paternity leave from day one in a job, removing the previous 26-week qualifying period. Campaigners welcome the change, but point out that the core offer remains unchanged – just two weeks’ leave, often poorly paid – meaning many families will still struggle to take it.
A wider economic and social case
Research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation supports the case for improving statutory paternity leave, finding that it would benefit not just families but the wider economy. Better leave enables fathers to play a more active role at home, supports maternal employment, and helps reduce long-term inequalities in both caregiving and earnings.
Against that backdrop, the gap between the public and private sectors becomes harder to justify. A recent survey of large UK employers found the average paternity offer in the private sector is now around five weeks – more than double the statutory minimum.
Some councils in the East of England are already moving in that direction. Cambridgeshire County Council offers four weeks at full pay, while Suffolk County Council provides four weeks with a mix of full and enhanced pay. Campaigners say these examples show that change is both possible and practical.
‘Time to get on the side of working dads’
For The Dad Shift and the parents gathered outside Mandela House, the aim is not simply to highlight a problem but to force a shift in expectations.
Gabriel says councils have an opportunity to lead by example, setting a standard that reflects modern family life rather than outdated assumptions about who provides care.
Until that happens, parents argue, the symbolism of milk, flowers and eggs will continue to resonate: everyday items lasting longer than the time many fathers are given to adjust to one of the most significant moments of their lives.
This article is based on a press release from The Dad Shift, compiled with assistance from AI tools and edited by East Anglia Bylines.
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