Our Employment Law Solicitors are specialists in advising on Shared Parental Leave.

The system of Shared Parental Leave has been in place since April 2015. Employees who are parents (whether by birth or adoption), can take Shared Parental Leave in the first year of their child’s life or in the first year after their child’s placement for adoption.

Parents will not be obliged to take Shared Parental Leave. The default position on the birth of a child will be that the mother will take up to 52 weeks of maternity leave (39 weeks paid). The default position on the adoption of a child will be that the primary adopter will be entitled to 52 weeks of adoption leave (39 weeks paid).

Additional paternity leave and pay will not be available in respect of babies whose expected week of confinement is on or after 5 April 2015, or for children who are placed for adoption on or after that date. Unless parents qualify for and opt into the Shared Parental Leave scheme the only entitlement that the child’s other parent will have will be two weeks’ ordinary paternity leave and pay.

The new scheme will make up to 50 weeks of Shared Parental Leave and 37 weeks of Shared Parental Pay available for eligible parents to take or share (that is, everything other than the 2 weeks compulsory maternity leave period following the birth of a child or an equivalent two-week period in adoption cases). A mother or primary adopter will be able to end their maternity or adoption leave, or commit to ending it at a future date, and share the untaken leave with the other parent as Shared Parental Leave. This will enable mothers and primary adopters to return to work before the end of their leave without sacrificing the rest of the leave that would otherwise be available to them. Shared Parental Leave can either be taken consecutively or concurrently, as long as the total time taken does not exceed what is jointly available to the couple.

Our Employment Advice Services

Our specialist Employment Solicitors can assist you by: –

• Advising you on your rights,
• Assisting you in creating proposals for Shared Parental Leave,
• Helping you to prepare for any formal meeting, and
• Advising you on how to best deal with any navigate any issues that arise.

We are able to offer very competitive rates and fixed fee packages for our work. All our initial advice is provided by qualified solicitors and offered for free, so please call us on 0208 591 3366 or request a call back through the website.