A plan put forward by the Bar Standards Board (BSB) to relax the rules around shared parental leave has been welcomed by the Bar Council, according to reports.
Employed Barristers and their partners have been entitled to enjoy shared parental leave between both partners in the first year of their child’s – or adopted child’s – life since April 2015.
However, self-employed Barristers are not currently entitled to shared leave, and, in a recent consultation, the BSB is pushing for change to ensure that self-employed members of the Bar will be covered by the same rights as their employed counterparts.
In a consultation response submitted at the beginning of March, the Bar Council said that the regulator’s proposals should be welcomed by all and should be placed at the “forefront of advocating full equality for all its members”.
The Bar Council cited research which recently found that more than half (57 per cent) of women at the bar who have children currently act as their primary carers.
In a statement, it added that the proposals would “act as a draw to recruitment of the best and most talented women, who would otherwise not consider a career in what is still a male-dominated profession, especially at the more senior levels”.
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