"Only 1 per cent of new fathers are taking shared parental leave" WRONG

Story that 1% of new dads taking shared parental leave: nonesense. Survey asks employers for % of ALL male employees pic.twitter.com/I2J9foRDpO

— Sarah O'Connor (@sarahoconnor_) April 5, 2016

This morning's news was full of stories about the failure of Nick Clegg's pet policies when he was deputy prime minister: shared parental leave.

Here is an example from the Evening Standard:

Only 1 per cent of fathers have taken up the opportunity to share parental leave a year after the option was introduced, a survey of employers and parents has found. 

According to research by My Family Care - which advises businesses on being family-friendly - and the Women's Business Council, 55 per cent of women said they would not want to share their maternity leave. 

The survey of more than 1,000 parents and 200 businesses found that taking up shared parental leave ... was dependent on a person's individual circumstances, particularly on their financial situation and the paternity pay on offer from their employer.

But as the tweet above from Sarah O'Connor, employment correspondent for the Financial Times, shows, these stories were nonsense.

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