Q&A: The new rules on shared parental leave

Shared parental leave has been designed by the government to give new parents greater flexibility to care for their children.

The new regulations will apply to parents of babies whose expected week of childbirth is on or after 5th April 2015 and parents of children placed for adoption on or after that date.

What is changing?

The current provisions for maternity leave and ordinary paternity leave will remain the same but additional paternity leave will no longer be available. Parents who qualify for shared parental leave will have to opt in to the scheme if they wish to take advantage of it.

Who can take shared parental leave?

A mother or primary adopter who is entitled to statutory maternity/adoption leave, statutory maternity/adoption pay or maternity allowance can limit their entitlement so that both parents can share the balance as shared parental leave. The other parent must be economically active and have the main responsibility for caring for the child apart from any responsibility the mother or primary adopter has. The leave can be taken for up to a year following the birth or placement of a child for adoption.

What’s are the rules on eligibility?

In order to be eligible parents must:

• Have worked for their employer for at least 26 weeks at the end of the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth or the date they were notified of an adoption placement.
• Still be in employment with that employer until the week before any period of shared parental leave begins.
• Have the main responsibility for caring for the child apart from any responsibility the other parent may have.

Do both parents have to be employees?

No, but both parents must be economically active. This means that they must have worked in an employed or self-employed role in at least 26 of the 66 weeks before the expected week of childbirth or the week they were notified of the adoption match. During this time their average earnings must have been at least £30 per week based on any 13 of those weeks.

This means that more parents will be able to benefit from the scheme. For example, if the mother is an employee, and the father is self-employed or recently unemployed, he will not technically qualify but she can limit her maternity leave and return to work, taking a further period or periods of shared parental leave at a later date.

How will it work?

There will still be a compulsory initial two week period of maternity leave following birth and an equivalent period in cases of adoption. Following this there will be 50 weeks available for shared parental leave including 37 weeks of shared parental pay. The father or other parent can also take an additional two weeks’ statutory paternity leave and pay.

Shared parental leave is flexible so parents can choose to take leave at the same time or once the other parent has returned to work. They can also split periods of leave up so they take some leave, return to work, and then have a further period of time off.

What will employees have to do?

The mother or primary adopter must give their employer:

• A curtailment notice at least 8 weeks before they wish their leave or pay to end.
• A notice of entitlement and intention to take shared parental leave OR a declaration that their partner has served such a notice.
• A period of leave notice at least 8 weeks before the first start date.

The father or other parent must give their employer a written notice containing specified information at least eight weeks before the date on which shared parental leave is to begin.

The parents must also give signed declarations to both employers stating the other parent’s name, address and national insurance number along with additional specified information.

What are the obligations for employers?

If an employee requests one continuous period of shared parental leave this must be accepted by their employer. If an employee requests non-continuous periods the employer has two weeks to decide whether to accept the request, propose alternatives or refuse it. Where the employer refuses the periods requested an employee can choose to take their whole entitlement as a continuous period or can withdraw their original notice. Where the original notice is withdrawn in these circumstances an employee can serve up to three notices.

The rules are modified in certain situations such as when a child is born earlier than expected, a parent or a child dies, an adoption placement is disrupted or the parents cease to be entitled to shared parental leave.

During shared parental leave an employee can maintain reasonable contact with their employer and can work for up to 20 days without bringing a period of leave to an end. These will be additional to any keep in touch days taken during maternity or adoption leave.

Employees who take shared parental leave have:

• Additional protection from redundancy
• The right to return to work when the period of leave ends
• Protection from being subjected to detrimental treatment for taking or seeking to take shared parental leave