The benefits of paid parental leave are well known – for newborn babies and adults alike. A time for bonding, mothers are more likely to breastfeed for longer and also more likely to stay in the workforce if they are given enough time off to care for their babies.

However, it is usually just young mothers who benefit from parental leave (rather than family leave) the most.

But a new initiative from consultancy firm Deloitte in the US aims to make leave more inclusive and could set the template for leave in the future. The Deloitte policy offers leave not just to new parents but to any employee who has caring responsibilities.

At a time when people are living longer, many employees are finding that as their caring responsibilities for children lessen, so the caring demands for elderly relatives increase. They are caught in the middle of a caring sandwich.

At Deloitte, anyone in theory can take advantage of family leave to care for a baby, adopted child or a sick relative. What that does is level the playing field for men and women in the workplace, potentially making it more commonplace for men to spend time at home with their newborn child, for example. Or making it permissible for a senior executive to spend a month off with a sick parent.

The policy also means that leave isn’t something that only appeals to younger generations, and diffuses the resentment occasionally felt by older workers around young mothers taking longer periods of maternity leave. Universal family leave might also influence hiring managers when deciding who to recruit and who to advance.

Currently, in Australia, Deloitte offers 14 weeks paid parental leave and says there are no immediate plans to follow suit, although it will be reviewing the US policy around family leave.