Thread by @joswinson

Today is the 4th anniversary of Shared Parental Leave - one of my proudest achievements as Employment Relations Minister.

SPL is good for families, good for children and good for equality in the workplace.

What better way to mark the day than with some wonderful dads & babies?

The govt review of SPL is long overdue - as are the planned improvements. But I know how busy they are making a mess of Brexit, so I've done their homework for them. If govt wants to make work better for parents, all it needs to do is back my Bill. 👇🏼

Make shared parental leave a right from your very first day in a job, just like maternity leave is. And extend it to self-employed parents and freelancers.

Allow employees to request flexible working from day one so that everyone with caring responsibilities is properly supported in the workplace.

Give dads an extra four weeks of use-it-or-lose-it paternity leave.

And we must plug the childcare support gap between 9 months and 2 years.

As for employers, if they are serious about being family-friendly, they should put money where their mouths are. They must enhance shared parental pay as they do for maternity. Closing that financial gap will make this a viable choice for so many more couples.

We need more awesome dads to shout about why they love spending time caring for their children - tell colleagues, friends & family. It's the best way to counter the sexist stereotype of hapless, hopeless dad.

Huge thanks to the lovely dads & babies who joined me for our chat!