Maternity, adoption, paternity and parental leave

The different kinds of leave and pay available are as follows:

• Maternity leave and pay - applies to pregnant employees and those who have just given birth
• Adoption leave and pay - applies to the child’s adopter, if a couple are adopting jointly, only one of them is entitled to adoption leave.  This also applies to employees who are adopting as the intended parents in a surrogacy arrangement where they are applying for a parental order
• Paternity leave and pay - applies to fathers (biological or adopted) or partners, including civil partners
• Parental leave - applies to parents, adopters, partners, including civil partners or those with parental responsibilities
• Shared parental leave - applies to parents, adopters, partners, including civil partners, or those with main caring responsibilities, where the mother has curtailed (ended) their maternity or adoption leave early

Read about our procedures for each of these types of leave.

Maternity, adoption, paternity and parental leave procedure(DOC 320KB)

Notify us of paternity/maternity leave

Shared parental leave

The Shared Parental Leave procedure allows eligible parents to choose how to share the care of their child during the first year of birth or adoption. Its purpose is to give parents more flexibility in considering how to best care for, and bond with, their child.

All eligible employees have a statutory right to take Shared Parental Leave. There may also be an entitlement to some Shared Parental Pay. This procedure sets out the statutory rights and responsibilities of employees who wish to take statutory Shared Parental Leave (SPL) and statutory Shared Parental Pay (ShPP).

Shared Parental Leave Procedure (DOC 249kb)