One year off for adoptive parents

Working people who adopt will be entitled to a full year’s leave
under a deal announced by trade and industry secretary Stephen
Byers last week.

From 2003, working parents who adopt a child will be entitled to
another six months unpaid leave on top of the six months’ paid
entitlement announced in the March Budget.

It will allow an adoptive couple to choose which parent takes
time off. The other parent will be entitled to two weeks paid
“paternity” leave. All fathers will be entitled to two weeks’ paid
paternity leave from 2003.

Byers said: “These new rights will help keep adoptive parents in
the workplace who might otherwise be forced to leave.”

The moves follows the publication of the government’s green
paper Work and Parents: Competitiveness and Choice.