Maternity and Paternity Rights Survey, 2009-2010

The research aims, via a survey of mothers and fathers, to gather information on the provision of family-friendly working practices (including maternity and parental leave), and respondents' views, awareness and take-up of such measures. NatCen Social Research and The Policy Studies Institute have conducted a number of surveys of mothers on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions and its predecessors, in 1980, 1988, 1993, 1996, 2002 and 2009-2010. Of these, the 1993, 2002 and 2009-2010 surveys are currently held at the UK Data Archive (UKDA), under SN3716, SN5270 and SN7349 respectively. Two further surveys in the series have also been conducted, in 2005 and 2007, and will be deposited at the UKDA in due course.<br> <br> <i>Maternity and Paternity Rights Survey, 2009-2010</i> <br> <br> The 2009-2010 survey benchmarks key policy changes since the 2007 survey, including the Work and Families Act 2006. The survey was commissioned by Department for Work and Pensions and Department for Business Innovation and Skills and carried out by NatCen Social Research.<br> <br> The aims of the survey were:<br> <ul><br> <li>to examine the impact of the 2007 maternity rights legislative changes on mothers engagement and experience in the labour market prior to, and following, the birth through tracking changes from the 2007 survey;</li><br> <br> <li>to provide a detailed, statistically representative, up-to-date picture of mothers experiences and take up of maternity rights and benefits to identify the impact of the 2007 legislative changes, and to provide a baseline against which the impact of future changes can be measured; </li><br> <br> <li>to identify differences in take-up and eligibility (including all types of leave and pay, including Occupational Maternity Pay) related to individual characteristics, job characteristics and employer characteristics and how it has changed following the introduction of the 2007 reforms;</li><br> <br> <li>to examine what enables women returners to remain in work, to explore the choices and constraints behind non-working mothers remaining out of the labour market post childbirth and what would enable them to return to work including childcare usage;</li><br> <br> <li>to examine fathers take-up of paternity leave and paternity pay in order to collect robust data on the various provisions for fathers during and after the mothers pregnancy;</li><br> <br> <li>to explore the attitudes of both fathers and mothers on sharing the childcare responsibility during the six months additional maternity leave.</li></ul><br>