\n<\/p>\n
A father who has fought for a change in the law so that bereaved parents can look after their babies after the death of a partner will tell his son he can make the \u201cimpossible\u201d happen after new rights for workers are laid before parliament on Monday.<\/p>\n
Aaron Horsey was shocked when he discovered he had no right to take leave to look after his newborn son, after his wife, Bernadette, 31, died while giving birth at Royal Derby hospital.<\/p>\n
Because Horsey, a clinical trial manager, had worked for his company for less than nine months, he did not have the automatic right to paternity leave or parental leave, despite being left in sole care of his son.<\/p>\n
A little over three years after telling the Guardian of his fight to ensure that other fathers and partners would not have to go through the same emotional trauma, he said new paternity leave for bereaved partners \u2013 which will give up to 52 weeks of leave for those who lose their partner before their child\u2019s first birthday \u2013 meant other grieving parents would have \u201ca clear route for support at one of the most difficult moments imaginable\u201d.<\/p>\n
Measures secured under Labour\u2019s employment rights bill to give day-one rights to paternity leave and paid parental leave to working parents will also be presented to parliament, after the government made a number of concessions to secure its passage through the House of Lords in December. The new rights affecting paternity and parental leave will come into effect in April.<\/p>\n
Seeing the legislative journey of the Paternity Leave (Bereavement) Act\u2013 which started as an urgent conversation between Horsey, carrying his three-week-old son, and his then MP, Darren Henry, the Conservative member for Broxtowe in Nottinghamshire \u2013 had left Horsey with mixed emotions. \u201cI\u2019m proud that something good has come from a very difficult experience and I\u2019m glad that this particular worry won\u2019t need to affect anyone in future and they can simply have the time they need without delay,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Asked what he would say to his son about the change in the law, which received cross-party support and was introduced with a private member\u2019s bill by Chris Elmore, the Labour MP for Bridgend, Horsey said: \u201cI\u2019ll tell Tim that sometimes challenges arise and they might seem impossible. We can always choose what to do next. If something needs to be changed, it\u2019s always worth trying to \u2013 even if it takes a long time to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The legislation, which amended the Employment Rights Act 1996, became law on the last day of parliament in 2024 and applies in England, Scotland and Wales. Although it does not apply in Northern Ireland, Horsey is hopeful that the country will benefit from the change in the future.<\/p>\n
Reflecting on the change, he said he suspected his wife would have been more proud of his son \u201cgrowing into a kind and curious person\u201d than the legislation, but added: \u201cShe was always very focused on fairness and kindness, and I think she\u2019d be glad that what happened to us has led to something that will help other families.\u201d<\/p>\n
A government spokesperson said the recently passed Employment Rights Act 2025, which amends the 1996 act, would see an additional 32,000 fathers a year be able to access paternity leave immediately. Campaigners have argued that new fathers have been betrayed by the act, after it emerged that a promised \u201cday-one\u201d right to paternity leave would not include the day-one right to statutory pay.<\/p>\n
Keir Starmer said the changes meant new parents would be able to take time off when they had a child, and no one would be forced to work while ill just to make ends meet. \u201cThis is about giving working families the support they need to balance work, health and the cost of living,\u201d the prime minister said.<\/p>\n
The TUC general secretary, Paul Nowak, said the act would <\/strong>\u201cdeliver vital commonsense reforms for millions of people across the country \u2013 including sick pay for all workers and better leave for parents\u201d and bring Britain into line with other countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A father who has fought for a change in the law so that bereaved parents can look after their babies after the death of a partner will tell his son he can make the \u201cimpossible\u201d happen after new rights for workers are laid before parliament on Monday. Aaron Horsey was shocked when he discovered he<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[17281,1206,2217,118,2957,1398,1222,21275,702,8655],"class_list":{"0":"post-41331","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-bereaved","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-father","11":"tag-great","12":"tag-leave","13":"tag-maternity","14":"tag-parental","15":"tag-paternity","16":"tag-rights","17":"tag-welcomes"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}