Introduction
The international network on leave policies and research has been producing an annual review of leave policies and related research since 2005 (for earlier reviews, go to the network’s website: http://www.leavenetwork.org/archive_2005_2009/annual_reviews/). The review covers Maternity, Paternity and Parental leaves; leave to care for sick children and other employment-related measures to support working parents; and early childhood education and care policy. As well as policies, it provides information on publications and research.
The review is based on country notes from each participating country, prepared by members of the network and edited by one of the network’s coordinators. Each country note follows a standard format: details of different types of leave; the relationship between leave policy and early childhood education and care policy; recent policy developments; information on take-up of leave; recent publications and current research projects.
The review also includes definitions of the main types of leave policies; and crosscountry comparisons. These comparative overviews cover: each main type of leave; total leave available; the relationship between leave and ECEC entitlements; policy changes and developments since the previous review; publications since the previous review; and ongoing research in participating countries.
The 2015 review includes three new countries: Malta, Mexico and Uruguay. Altogether, it covers 38 countries. In addition to the new countries, these are: Austria, Brazil, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States of America.
N.B. It was not possible to update and revise the country notes for Netherlands and the Slovak Republic for the 2015 review; the country notes for these two countries, therefore, refer to April 2014.
The review is available online either as one complete document; or, for ease of downloading, divided into its constituent parts.