Though SPL came into affect nationwide in April last year, male barristers (as self-employed professionals) have been blocked from accessing the scheme. While female self-employed barristers can choose to reduce their maternity allowance and pass on time-off entitlements to an employed partner, male barristers cannot presently access SPL.
Now, the Bar Council is calling on the BSB to review current guidance on parental leave to include SPL and explore options for making the scheme accessible to male barristers as co-parents. One potential measure under consideration is rent rebates offered to barrister fathers on their chambers for the period of time they take off for parental leave, according to reports in Legal Futures. Such a move would be an extension of current BSB rules which require chambers to offer parental leave periods and rent breaks only to the 'main carer' of a child in their first year of life.
'None of this was legally mandated, but it was to everyone's advantage,' writes Rachel Crasnow QC of existing parental leave provisions for barristers in a post on the Bar Council website. 'Chambers were more likely to retain those skilled women they had invested in for years. The Bar as a whole could avoid becoming an institution where mothers often found it impossible to combine professional and maternity commitments. Individuals could maintain their careers.'
The Bar Council push comes as a new report published by My Family Care this week found that 55 per cent of women say they would be reluctant to share maternity leave with their partner, though 80 per cent of surveyed individuals (men and women) said that their decision on whether or not to take shared parental leave would come down to their financial situation. However, 63 per cent of fathers included in the study said that they would be likely to choose to take share parental leave for future children.
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