Fully effective from 6th April 2003, the new statutory rights, to leave of absence from work for those with children are in briefest outline:

• maternity leave (and pay) - 52 weeks if the mother has been in continuous employment for 26 weeks (for the first 26 weeks the mother will normally be entitled either to statutory maternity pay (''SMP'') or maternity allowance).
  
• adoption leave (and pay) - 52 weeks if the adopting parent has been in continuous employment for 26 weeks (for the first 26 weeks the adoptive parent will normally be entitled to statutory adoption pay).
  
• parental leave (unpaid) - 13 weeks
  
• paternity leave (and pay) - 2 weeks (includes right to statutory paternity pay (''SPP''));

The new rights effective from 6th April 2003 are in addition to other relevant existing rights. For relevant specific notes go to:

SPECIFIC "FAMILY FRIENDLY" LEGISLATION	GENERAL LAW
Adoption leave	Children and young persons
Flexible Working	Health and Safety at work/maternity suspension from work
Maternity/maternity leave	Illness, sickness and accidents/maternity leave
Parental leave	Part-time workers
Paternity leave	Sex discrimination/indirect discrimination
Time off work/time off for dependants	Zero hours contracts

For notes on the Employment Act 2002 go to ACTS OF PARLIAMENT etc/Employment Act 2002

For notes on general (historical) background go to Family friendly proposals/recent background .

The 2004/02/26 - Publication of DWP/PSI reports "Maternity and Paternity Rights in Britain 2002: survey of parents" and "Maternity Rights in Britain 2002: Survey of Employers"
DTI "Working Parents" home page is the starting point for relevant official websites.

In November/December 2004 the government announced its general 10 year "family friendly strategy" (also relevant for single parents) as being:-

• introduction of a Childcare approval scheme from 6th April 2005 providing families on incomes of up to £59,000 with Tax Credit support to help pay for home childcare.
  
• a goal of 12 months paid maternity leave by the end of next parliament; as a first step, the maternity leave entitlement will be extended to nine months from April 2007.
  
• legislation to give mothers the right to transfer a proportion of their pay and leave to the child's father by end of the next parliament.
  
• consultation on the case for extending the right to request flexible working to parents of older children.
  
• an out of school childcare place for all children aged 3 -14 between the hours of 8am - 6pm each weekday by 2010.
  
• proposals for every family to have access to integrated services through Children's Centres in their local community and a goal of 3,500 Centres by 2010.

In summer 2005 the results of the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS) were announced (the previous similar survey was in 1997/1998). This provides "an up to date account of the state of employment relations in Britain" and includes a "Table 9" comparing flexible-working and leave arrangements for non-managerial employees in 1998 and 2004, showing a considerable increase in such arrangements (see 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey by DTI, ACAS, the Economic and Social Research Council and the Policy Studies Institute (First Findings, July 2005)).