More time off for parents of early arrivals
CARMARTHENSHIRE Council has become the first local authority in Wales to give its employees additional paid leave if they have a premature baby.
The council’s executive board has agreed to implement a new policy to support employees who give birth at or before 37 weeks, or where their baby requires hospitalisation at full-term birth.
Employees will be entitled to receive an extra week’s leave and pay for every week their premature baby spends in hospital before their due date.
The leave will be added to the end of the employee’s maternity, but the pay will be made available upfront to support parents with expenses associated with hospital visits and childcare costs for older siblings.
The policy has been welcomed by staff, including trading standards officer Heidi Neil, whose daughter Nancy was born prematurely at 24 weeks in 2017, spending 14 weeks in hospital receiving acute neonatal care.
“This is such a positive move by the council that will have a massive impact on the wellbeing of parents,” she said. “It will alleviate some of the financial pressures faced by families with babies in the NICU and reassure them of their employer’s support. For us, if the worry about loss of income had been removed, it would PLANS to build more than 900 council houses puts Carmarthenshire “at the forefront in Wales”, council leader Emlyn Dole said.
He and his fellow executive board members approved the first phase of building, which will deliver 374 new properties, at a meeting on July 29.
The three-year phase in four districts will cost £53 million and see 242 new council properties in the Llanelli and district area, 57 Ammanford and the Amman Valley, 47 in Carmarthen and the west, and 27 in Carmarthen rural and market towns.
This will be followed by two further phases in a Richard Youle 10-year project costing some £150 million in total.
Executive board member for housing councillor Linda Evans said the “high-standard” homes would be built in areas of need and return Carmarthenshire’s housing stock to 1990s levels.
“The project is a very exciting and challenging one,” she said.
Mr Dole said the Plaid Cymru - Independent administration’s proposals had been discussed with Julie James, Minister for Housing and Local Government.
“This puts us at the forefront in Wales,” he said.
The project will now go for discussion by full council in September.
If all goes to plan 932 houses will be shared across the Llanelli and district area (439), Carmarthen and the west (188), Ammanford and the Amman Valley (186), and Carmarthen rural and market towns (119).
Councillor Cefin Campbell, executive board member for communities and rural affairs, said the scheme would bolster rural areas as well as helping those who could not afford to get on the housing ladder.
“No other county in Wales is doing what we are doing,” he said.
The project will mainly be financed by council borrowing. Welsh Government grants will also play their part.
The administration has separately pledged to deliver 1,000 affordable homes by 2021 by bringing empty properties back into use and supporting private landlords through a special housing agency, among other methods.
Ms Evans said more than 700 of these affordable homes had already been delivered.
“I am completely confident that we will reach this (1,000) target by 2021,” she said.