FATHERS should be allowed three months off work around the time of a child’s birth as well as flexible work opportunities, says a report from the Commons women and equalities committee published today.

Current policies supporting working dads — including shared parental leave, which is deducted from their partner’s maternity leave — are not good enough, MPs said, particularly in the case of less well-off parents.

They called on the government to extend statutory paternity leave in a child’s first year from two weeks to 14, in which time fathers would received 90 per cent of their wages — with the figure capped for higher earners — when ministers review the policy this year.

The government must listen to these “common-sense proposals,” the TUC said.

The committee should have recommended that agency worker parents receive paid time off for antenatal appointments, general secretary Frances O’Grady added.

Legislation is needed to make all jobs flexible from day one — unless there are “solid business reasons” not to — and to harmonise workplace rights for agency worker or self-employed dads with those who are employees, the committee said.

Fifty-three per cent of fathers want a less stressful job so they can balance work and family life, research published by Working Families shows.

However, the government’s flagship policy of shared parental leave, introduced in 2015, has a predicted take-up rate of just 2 to 8 per cent.

Sam Smethers, chief executive of feminist campaign group the Fawcett Society, said: “When an employer thinks a man and a woman are equally as likely to take time off to look after the kids, we will begin to address one of the fundamental drivers of the gender pay gap.”