Frequently Asked Questions

Regulations came into force on 1 December 2014, applying to eligible parents of babies due or, children placed for adoption, on or after 5th April 2015.

Shared Parental Leave is part of a suite of legislation intended to provide both parents with the opportunity to consider the best arrangements to care for their child during the child's first year and incorporates Shared Parental Pay (ShPP) arrangements.

Subject to eligibility, the right to SPL applies to employees who become parents (the child's mother and father, or spouse or partner of the child's mother (if not the father), including partner or same sex partner), who have the main responsibility for the care of the child with the other parent/partner.

You must have worked for the same employer for a continuous period of at least 26 weeks at the end of the 15th week before the week in which the child is due (or at the week in which the carer was notified of having been matched with a child for adoption) and be still employed in the first week that SPL is to be taken. The other parent must have worked for 26 weeks in the 66 weeks leading up to the due date and have earned above the current maternity leave threshold in 13 of the 66 weeks.

• Up to 50 weeks' leave and 37 weeks' pay can be shared between parents if the mother brings her maternity leave and pay to an end early.
• SPL can be taken by one parent or taken together.
• The mother can take SPL after she has taken the legally required two weeks of maternity leave immediately following the birth of the child. The adopter can take SPL after taking at least two weeks of adoption leave.
• The father/partner/spouse can take SPL immediately following the birth/placement of the child, but may first choose to exhaust any paternity leave entitlements (as the father/partner cannot take paternity leave or pay once they have taken any SPL or ShPP).

Yes, parents can choose to take this together or individually as long as the collective leave is 50 weeks or less. 

Additional paternity leave will no longer be available for babies born on or after 5th April 2015. The two weeks statutory/ordinary paternity leave will still remain and after this SPL would be applied.

Paternity leave will continue to be available for fathers and partners. This will be a period of one or two weeks which must be used in a single block of leave and taken within 56 days of the birth. If the child is born early, paternity leave can be taken within the period from the actual date of birth up to 56 days after the expected date of birth.

Unpaid parental leave will remain, the only change is that the upper age limit will rise from 5 to 18 from April 2015.

The mother can opt to take SPL after the mandatory 2 weeks maternity leave.

Provided the mother or adopter has given advance notice reducing their maternity or adoption entitlements their partner can start to take SPL.

Maternity entitlement will remain unaffected by the introduction of SPL; the mother can choose to curtail her maternity leave or to take SPL if she chooses to do so.

Your partner can take SPL whilst you remain on maternity leave; the combined leave will be calculated meaning your maternity leave will shorten as a result of your partner taking SPL.

A curtailment notice must be provided at least eight weeks before the intended date of the maternity leave stopping.

Maternity Leave can end 2 weeks after the birth, however, notice to curtail maternity leave can be provided before the birth along with the notice of entitlement to take SPL and request to take parental leave documents.

Once a mother has returned to work, she cannot restart her maternity leave. A mother can only change her decision to end her maternity leave after a curtailment notice has been given in very limited circumstances.

A mother can revoke (cancel) her maternity curtailment notice only where:

• The notice was given before the birth - she is only entitled to revoke the notice in the 6 weeks immediately following the birth;
• The other parent dies;
• It subsequently transpires that neither of the parents were entitled to SPL or ShPP.

Yes, SPL will be available to adopters and their partners. There are a number of changes to the adoption policy effective 5th April 2015 which are contained in the Adoption Policy.

The entitlement does not change for multiple births.

The University has a number of family friendly policies, which can be found by clicking here. 

The flexible working policy is still applicable.

Must have worked for the same employer for a continuous period of at least 26 weeks at the end of the 15th week before the week in which the child is due (or at the week in which an adopter was notified of having been matched with the child for adoption) and be still employed in the first week that SPL is taken.

The other parent must have worked for 26 weeks in the 66 weeks leading up to the due date and have earned above the current maternity leave threshold in 13 of the 66 weeks.

The partner could be self employed or no longer employed provided the earnings threshold is met and/or continuous service of 26 weeks was met before the end of employment.

As a non-employee, they would not be able to take the SPL themselves but the eligible partner would then be able to take the leave, for example, a mother may prefer to opt for SPL rather than maternity leave because of being able to use the leave more flexibly.

The father/partner can begin to take their shared parental leave 2 weeks after the birth, provided the following has been submitted eight weeks in advance;

• The notification of intent form
• Formal request for SPL has been submitted
• The request has been approved and the mother has signed a declaration form confirming they have either returned to work or have curtailed their maternity leave
• The father is eligible for SPL and their request has been approved.

Employees need to provide at least 8 weeks' notice, by giving your line manager a 'notice of entitlement' from which details information about your partner, leave periods intended etc., this must be accompanied by your partner's signed declaration form.

In exceptional circumstances employees may negotiate with their manager on returning early from SPL, this would need to be approved by the School/Departmental manager in consultation within the HR Department.

• Notice of Entitlement
• Curtailment of maternity leave (where appropriate)
• Partner's declaration
• Request for SPL

You can request continuous leave, which must be approved or discountinous leave, which must be considered. You can give up to three separate notices in relation to SPL. 

All SPL must be taken in the child's first year, or the first year of adoption.

Requests for discontinuous leave can be declined. You then have the option to withdraw your notification on or before the 15th day after you made the notification and it won't count as one of your three notifications. If you don't then you will need to take the total amount of leave requested in one continuous block. You can choose when that period will begin within 19 days of the notification being submitted to the university so long as it doesn't start before the start date set out in the notification. If you don't choose a different date then the leave will start on the date you included in the notification form.

There is no limit on the blocks within the 50 weeks available SPL, however discontinuous block requests can be declined. You can make 3 separate requests for SPL.

Yes, you can request to vary or cancel Shared Parental Leave, giving eight weeks' notice, which will count as one of your three requests.

You can revoke your maternity leave curtailment notice if you have provided this before the baby is born and revoke the notice in writing in the six weeks after his/her birth. 

In majority of cases it will. However, this may not be observed in the following circumstances;

• In the case of the father/partner, where the mother dies
• In the case of the mother, where the father/partner dies
• Where the baby is born more than 8 weeks early

• Name of partner
• National insurace number
• Address
• Name of Child
• Signed declaration they have responsibility for caring for the child
• Signed declaration they satisfy the eligibility criteria
• Signed consent to the employee taking Shared Parental Leave
• (for mother's signed declaration that they are entitled to Statutory Maternity entitlements and that maternity leave has or will be curtailed or they have returned to work)

You can apply for one period of continuous leave i.e. four weeks or; you can apply for one period of discontinuous leave i.e. in blocks of one week SPL in June, one week SPL in July, two weeks SPL in August.

You can talk to your line manager about your circumstances or by contacting HR who will be able to advise you on your individual circumstances and options.

HR will confirm your entitlements, pay and schedule.

Binding (a decision that cannot normally be changed) notifications are the Curtailment notices and the request for SPL. Your non-binding notifications are the intention to take SPL notification.

You should notify your manager as soon as possible with a revised date which will then be confirmed to you by the HR Department.

There are two types of ShPP - Statutory and enhanced.

To qualify for Statutory ShPP as well as having the appropriate continuity of service you must have earned an average salary of the lower earnings limit or more for the 8 weeks prior to the 15th week before the child's due date or placement.

To qualify for Enhanced you must meet the criteria for statutory ShPP and meet a number of other conditions outlined in the SPL policy.

Yes, you will need to take your SPL in one block of leave to get your enhanced pay.

Yes they are called Shared Parental Leave in Touch days (SPLiTs) and each parent can take up to 20 SPLiT days.

Yes, either through separate blocks of SPL where there is a return to work period in between the SPL, or for continuous SPL, take agreed SPLiT days. 

KiT days are associated with maternity leave and are unaffected by SPL.

If a redundancy situation arises while an employee is on SPL, they, like a mother on maternity leave, must be offered suitable alternatives if available, including having access to the redeployment register.

If an employee cannot return to work at the end of SPL because of illness, they should follow the normal sickness notification procedures, it shall be dealt with under the University's Sick Pay Scheme and will count against the normal entitlement to paid sick leave.

Where an employee who is claiming statutory shared parental pay for a week does not have the intention at the beginning of that week to care for the child (for example because that person is too sick) then statuory shared parental pay will not be payable for that week. Statutory shared parental pay will also not be payable in any week where the employee became entitled to statutory sick pay for any part of that week. If they have already received statutory shared parental pay in respect of a week where they are also claiming statutory sick pay, the employer may be able to recover the overpayment from the employee as an overpayment of wages.

You will accrue annual leave during your shared parental leave at the contractual rate, in addition to Bank Holidays and University closure days (pro-rata for part-time staff).

 If your SPL period is likely to cross two annual leave years and it is impractical to take all the leave in the year in which it was accrued (in line with the Annual Leave Policy) you may carry over the accrued annual leave, but must use these days within three months following your return to work, except where an alternative timescale is agreed with your manager due to operational requirements.

Flexible working requests can be made and should be approached in line with the flexible working policy.