Waltham Forest Council has decided to extend paid leave for its employees when they become new parents.

The authority made the decision at a cabinet meeting and unanimously voted for both maternity and paternity leave for council employees to be lengthened.

The council also approved extended leave for new parents of adopted and premature children.

As part of the plans, female council employees are now entitled to 10 weeks of maternity leave on full pay and male council employees can claim up to two weeks of fully paid paternity leave.

Adoption leave has also been increased to up to 10 weeks at full pay and foster carers are now entitled to five days a year of fully paid leave too.

A campaign to highlight the importance of supporting families with premature babies, called The Smallest Things, has been pushing for more parental leave for those whose babies are born premature.

As part of that scheme, Waltham Forest Council offers those parents leave at full pay for the time a premature baby spends in hospital up until its original due date.

The authority has now extended that offer to include parents whose babies are born at full term but who are hospitalised immediately after birth and is giving them up to four weeks of fully paid leave.

Bereavement leave will also be brought in from January 2019, more than a year before government legal requirements have dictated.

When a council employee’s child under the age of 18 dies, that council employee will be entitled to two weeks of fully paid leave.

Overall, the changes are due to set the council back more than £56,000 per year, with extended maternity leave costing up to £40,000 per year.

During the cabinet meeting, deputy council leader Cllr Clyde Loakes announced the proposed changes and said: “Waltham Forest is leading the debate on something that is very important. The comfort these changes give to our employees is great and we were the first employer in the country to try fully paid leave for parents of premature babies.

“This is a nice package of really, really good things that shows we are doing what we can where we can to make a difference.”

Catriona Ogilvy launched the Smallest Things petition, a campaign the council has supported since 2017, to extend maternity and paternity leave for parents of premature babies after her own son was born 10 weeks premature.

Ms Ogilvy spent the first months of her maternity leave in hospital with her premature son. She said: “When my first son was born 10 weeks early, I had no idea maternity leave would begin the very next day – months before we would bring him home.

“Mothers like me wait days, if not weeks, to hold their babies for the first time. They lose precious time to bond and experience higher levels of mental health difficulties following the trauma of neonatal intensive care.

“They need more time once their baby finally comes home before going back to work”.

Council leader Cllr Clare Coghill took the proposals to a vote and described the unanimous decision in favour of the changes as one that was “heartily agreed”.