It is only a week since Nick Clegg formally advanced his proposals to allow mothers and fathers to share parental leave from the workplace and already the battle lines are drawn with predictable names on either side.

From one corner, employer groups complain that it is just another burden on business. In the other, there are those who believe parental leave will provide a substantial boost to mothers who want to return to work

Personally, I am always slightly dismayed that, whenever someone floats a new idea around employment regulations, the debate quickly polarises into this anti-red tape v pro-worker rhetoric. The reason for this is that we often lose sight of the issues that matter through this type of debate.

For this issue of parental leave a good way of approaching the debate is to ask ourselves what won’t happen if nothing changes. From our knowledge of working parents gathered recently through our Parent Hub information portal and in the longer term through the provision of childcare vouchers to UK employers of all sizes, we can be certain of a number of things.

1) We will continue to lock out female talent at all levels in the workforce and businesses – particularly smaller ones – will miss out on the skills they need to grow.

2) Balancing childcare and careers will remain too difficult for many parents to manage with their careers in the early years and talent will depart rather than work.

3) The onus will continue to fall to male workers to be the main earner regardless of whether this is the best decision for the family from a financial or career perspective.

4) There will be no stimulus for employers to come up with imaginative ideas to support working parents who already find the task of juggling work and home life a tough one.

Of course, as we have written before, forward-looking organisations are already thinking about how a blend of benefits, flexible working hours, home working and education/coaching can support working mothers. These will be the organisations who remain ahead of the curve and think about how shared parental leave can be put into practice for their benefit.

For the others, it is a good opportunity to look through the red tape v up-the-workers debate and think about the opportunity which such change will bring.

After all, as the saying goes, opportunity often comes disguised as hard work.

Andy Philpott is sales and marketing director at Edenred

www.edenred.co.uk