Six properly paid weeks for dads.
What would it mean in your constituency?

Statutory paternity leave is two weeks at less than half the minimum wage - the worst in Europe. This page shows what six weeks at 90% pay would mean for families and local growth in each constituency, and who supports it locally. It also gives MPs a ready-made pack to call for change.

Public support for six weeks paternity leave

Every dot is a campaign supporter

Choose a constituency above to see its supporters and stories, the local numbers, and the MP pack.

Your constituency pack

Ready to use: the one-page impact report, a press release with the local figures filled in, and a graphic for social media.

Impact report (PDF) Press release (Word) Infographic (PNG) Open the folder

babies a year born in . Here is what six weeks of paternity leave at 90% pay would mean for local families, every year.

Dads eligible

working dads and non-birthing parents

Self-employed dads included

self-employed dads who'd get paid paternity leave for the first time

Family finances

for a dad on £30k, per baby

Family finances

in paternity pay for local families under the new offer

1 Six weeks of support when mothers need it most

mums have a caesarean or assisted birth each year

would have a partner at home for six weeks under the new offer

mums experience postnatal depression each year

would have a partner at home when the risk is highest

Caesarean recovery typically takes around six weeks. Partner support matters when maternal mental health is under pressure.

2 The cliff facing mothers

mums a year are working when a baby arrives

full-time

part-time

self-employed

step back from full-time work within three years

move part-time

leave the workforce

3 What better leave could unlock

mums likely to be better off at work when care at home is shared more equally

Up to

more mums in full-time work or back in work each year

extra economic output
Good growth in every postcode

4 Stories from

When dads can be there, they bond and build confidence, mums recover, and babies benefit.

The time is now. Let's shift it.

How these numbers are worked out

All figures are modelled estimates for the constituency, not observed local effects. The policy modelled is six weeks of paternity leave at 90% of earnings, capped at £1,200 a week.

Inputs: the number of babies under one in the constituency (ONS mid-2024 population by single year of age, House of Commons Library); resident full-time median pay (ASHE 2025); and the share of parents in the electorate (Census 2021, Commons Library). National assumptions: 70% of eligible employees currently take paternity leave (Government Parental Leave Review); 12.3% of working fathers are self-employed (JRF); Spain's 88.9% father take-up is used as the benchmark for six weeks; mothers' work patterns after birth from Harkness et al. for the Government's employment-pathways research; caesarean and assisted birth shares from NHS Maternity Statistics 2024/25; postnatal depression at 10 to 15 in every 100 mothers (Royal College of Psychiatrists); direct support and economic output shared out from JRF and the Centre for Progressive Policy's national estimates (£1.15bn and £2.68bn, 2023 prices) by each constituency's share of working fathers.

Counts are rounded to the nearest 5 or 10; money to the nearest £100 or £100,000. "More dads taking any leave" compares six weeks at 90% with today's statutory two weeks at £194.32. Petition-signature dots are placed to the nearest 100 metres or so, never to a house. Stories are shown only where the person agreed to share them publicly, with a first name only where they chose that, and are never tied to a location. MP photographs: UK Parliament, CC BY 3.0. Full methodology available on request from hello@dadshift.org.uk.

Six properly paid weeks for dads.What would it mean in your constituency?

Public support for six weeks paternity leave

Every dot is a campaign supporter

Your constituency pack

Six properly paid weeks for dads.
What would it mean in your constituency?