Sanchez criticises delays to parental leave and lack of childcare reforms

Shadow Minister for Care Atrish Sanchez said working families continue to face significant challenges because promised reforms to parental leave and childcare have yet to materialise, despite years of consultation.

Speaking during her Budget address, Ms Sanchez said Gibraltar still had no statutory paid paternity leave or statutory shared parental leave, describing this as one of the clearest examples of the gap between policy commitments and reality.

She added that without paid leave for fathers or partners, and without a shared parental leave system, families were unable to share caring responsibilities equally from the outset.

Ms Sanchez said this placed a disproportionate burden on mothers, affecting their return to work, career progression, income, pensions and wider equality.

"If a father cannot afford to take leave, he will not take it. If a mother has no support, she absorbs the burden," she said.

She added that inequalities were often reinforced not through direct discrimination but through policies that gave families the appearance of choice when financial circumstances meant they had little.

Ms Sanchez said the Government had stated in 2019 that consultation on parental leave was already at an advanced stage, but that reforms had still not been introduced.

"Families cannot live on consultation," she said.

"Fathers cannot bond with their children through consultation. Mothers cannot protect their career progression through consultation."

"At some point, consultation must become legislation."

Ms Sanchez also linked the issue to childcare provision, adding that the Government had introduced significant changes to the school calendar without first delivering the childcare support promised to families.

She referred to reductions in summer hours, resulting in a shorter school year, an extended Easter break and the introduction of a new May half-term break.

Ms Sanchez pointed out that the school year had been reduced from 191 days to approximately 177 to 179 days.

“The Minister says there is an educational argument for these changes,” she said.

“Yet no educational analysis, research or supporting data has been published to substantiate that case. It is therefore hardly surprising that many parents remain unconvinced, Madam Speaker.”

“But even if the Government believes the educational case is compelling, it still had a duty to explain the evidence publicly, consult meaningfully and put in place the childcare and family support it had already promised in its own manifesto before fundamentally changing the existing structures upon which working families had come to rely.”

Ms Sanchez also questioned the extent of the consultation with parents, pointing to a recent GGCA poll which, she said, found that 90% of respondents believed child carers had not been adequately consulted, while 79% wanted improved childcare provision.

She noted that although 71% supported the removal of summer hours, this did not necessarily mean they supported the wider package of school calendar changes without improved childcare.

"When you reduce school days, alter school structures or change the school calendar, you are not just making an education decision," she said.

"You are making a family decision. You are making an employment decision. You are making an equality decision."

Ms Sanchez said the Government had acted quickly when introducing structural changes to the school calendar but had allowed consultation on parental leave, affordable childcare and wraparound care to continue for years without legislative action.

"That is not consistency," she said.

"That is selective political expediency."