How it works

You and your partner may be able to get Shared Parental Leave (SPL) and Statutory Shared Parental Pay (ShPP) if you’re:

• having a baby
• using a surrogate to have a baby
• adopting a child

You can share up to 50 weeks of leave and up to 37 weeks of pay between you.

You need to share the pay and leave in the first year after your child is born or placed with your family.

You can use SPL to take leave in blocks separated by periods of work, or take it all in one go. You can also choose to be off work together or to stagger the leave and pay.

To get SPL and ShPP, you and your partner need to:

• meet the eligibility criteria – there’s different criteria for birth parents and criteria for adoptive parents or parents using a surrogate
• give notice to your employers

Eligibility for birth parents

To be eligible for Shared Parental Leave (SPL) and Statutory Shared Parental Pay (ShPP), both parents must:

• share responsibility for the child at birth
• meet work and pay criteria – these are different depending on which parent wants to use the shared parental leave and pay

You’re not eligible if you started sharing responsibility for the child after it was born.

More details and information can be found here