Nick Clegg is set to unveil new paternity leave rules

THE radical shake-up of paternity plans will give new fathers the right to take up to ten months paid leave to allow parents to share childcare.

The proposed reforms - key Lib Dem elements of the Coalition Agreement - will follow on from changes announced by the previous Labour government.

At the moment men are entitled to two weeks paid paternity leave.

From April this will be extended to six months, although some will be unpaid, when laws passed by the Labour government come into force. New fathers will be able to take the extra leave only after a child is 20 weeks old and the mother has returned to work.

However, Nick Clegg is expected to announce a new raft of rights for fathers juggling work and childcare.

Under the new proposals mothers will automatically get the first six weeks off.

After that couples would be able to choose how they wanted to divide the remaining period of parental leave, likely to be up to 46 weeks.

In theory a father could take all that time off to look after a baby while his partner returned to work.

The government will also look at an additional "use-it-or-lose-it" block for fathers to increase the take up among men.

Consultation on a new system of parental leave for 2015 will be launched in the coming weeks.

Currently men are allowed just two weeks of paid paternity leave, but under the new reforms, couples will be allowed to choose how they divide parental leave.

The new rules would entitle fathers to the same amount of pay as mothers staying at home.

Currently mothers are entitled to the first six weeks of maternity leave at 90 per cent of their average weekly earnings.

After that they get statutory maternity pay for up to 39 weeks at 125 a week or 90 per cent of their weekly earnings, whichever is lower.