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Shared Parental Leave - What You Need to Know

on Friday, 07 August 2015.

The Shared Parental Leave provisions came into force in April 2015 and as such you may be receiving Shared Parental Leave requests from your employees.

You may recall we reported on the introduction of shared parental leave in March.

In summary, Shared Parental Leave enables couples whose child was due on or after Sunday 5 April 2015 to share up to 50 weeks of leave and 37 weeks of pay in the first year of their child’s life. The leave can be split however the couple wishes, save that it is compulsory for the mother to take the first two weeks as leave. This means that both parents can be on leave at the same time, leave can be taken in one block or split up with periods of work in between. Similar rules apply for couples who adopt a child.

Best Practice

Employment documentation should be updated to reflect the statutory benefits relating to Shared Parental Leave. It is also important to make sure that staff know about their entitlements. The rules relating to notification and administration of Shared Parental Leave are complex and care should be taken in administering the scheme. We have produced a package providing all the necessary documentation relating to Shared Parental Leave, which can be purchased for a fixed fee of £450 +VAT and which can be provided on approval if requested.


For more information, please contact Jenny Marley in our Employment Law team on 0117 314 5378.