Whilst many businesses have heard of the statutory right to shared parental leave, it can be one of the trickier family leave rights to navigate. To help your business be ready to deal with any requests, we look at three key things that are good to know.
Whilst shared parental leave is available in both birth and adoption situations we focus on the former in this update. If you would like information on shared parental leave in an adoption situation, please get in touch.
- Who can take shared parental leave?
- What is shared parental leave and how much can be taken?
- Is there any statutory right to pay during shared parental leave?
Who can take shared parental leave?
Shared parental leave is available to a mother and their partner or the child’s father in birth cases, providing the required eligibility criteria are met. These include:
- The mother ending their maternity leave early by either returning to work or by serving a leave curtailment notice no less than eight weeks before they want their maternity leave to end.
- Having been continuously employed by the same employer for at least 26 weeks ending with the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth and remaining in continuous employment with that employer until the week before any period of shared parental leave they wish to take.
- Sharing the main responsibility for the care of the child with the other parent.
- The other parent meeting a minimum earnings requirement.
- Giving the required notices to the employer.
If you receive a shared parental leave request from an employee in your business, please get in touch for advice.
What is shared parental leave and how much can be taken?
Shared parental leave offers a more flexible way for parents to take leave in the first year after the birth of a child. Broadly, shared parental leave involves the mother ending their maternity leave early with the remainder being converted into shared parental leave.
Where both parents qualify for shared parental leave, subject to certain restrictions, it is up to them to decide between them how they wish to use it – for example each taking some (at the same time or separately), or one parent taking all of it. Where only one parent qualifies for shared parental leave, only that parent will be able to take it.
It can be helpful to know amongst other things that:
- The mother must take at least two weeks maternity leave directly following the birth of the child (four weeks for manual work in a factory environment).
- Shared parental leave must be completed within 52 weeks of the birth and it must be taken in multiples of complete weeks.
- Shared parental leave can be taken as a continuous period of leave, which cannot be refused. Alternatively (and less commonly), it can be taken as a discontinuous period of leave – that is leave taken over a period of time, with breaks between the leave where the employee returns to work. If you receive a request for discontinuous leave, please get in touch to discuss your situation as whilst it can be possible to refuse a request for discontinuous leave, in some circumstances this may not benefit your business (or your employee) as ‘default’ provisions can kick in dictating when and how the leave gets taken, which can be unhelpful.
Is there any statutory right to pay during shared parental leave?
How much statutory shared parental leave pay eligible parents get depends on how many of the 39 weeks of statutory maternity pay the mother has taken. Untaken weeks are converted into statutory shared parental leave pay, which can be shared (subject to meeting eligibility requirements). The current statutory rate of shared parental leave pay is £194.32 per week (or 90% of normal weekly earnings if this is lower).