Hopefully you already know about Shared Parental Leave. But just in case, here’s a reminder. The regime is part of The Children and Families Act 2014 and applies to any soon-to-be parents with an expected week of childbirth (or placement date if adopting) falling after 4th April 2015.

In terms of how this affects your employment or business, the long and short of it is you need to have policies put in place as soon as possible.

Shared Parental Leave explained

The idea behind the regime is to give parents more flexibility when taking leave during their first year with a new child. Negative workplace attitudes towards maternity leave and an unwillingness from fathers to take advantage of additional paternity leave led to a new system being designed. The aim of SPL is to allow both parents to share the leave and, in turn, the work.

How SPL is different

The main difference is flexibility. Employees can request all sorts of patterns of leave. Including taking leave together, separately and in turn. They can take all their time off in one go or stagger it over the total 50 week period. Parents will have the right to submit five leave requests over this period, so employers should be prepared for some unusual attendance patterns.

Employers should also look into what is most financially viable for their employees, as well as how to handle short-term cover for new parents. For example, taking all 12 months off at once might seem easier for the employer but could be financially harmful to the employee and affect their later performance at work.

Your SPL policy

As you’ve probably guessed, building a Shared Parental Leave policy can include some tricky procedural and administrative stages. One of the most important is making sure your policy sets out the procedure and notice provisions to which employees will have to adhere. And as with any policy such as this, it’s essential to style the document to allow your employees to understand their rights and make the application process run smoother.

As an employer you’ll also have to bring all other diversity and equality policies up to speed with the SPL regime. In short, your new SPL policy should explain:

  • Eligibility criteria
  • Leave entitlement
  • Minimum notice periods
  • Any evidence required for a leave application

Needing experienced assistance?

Johnson Legal are an experienced Edinburgh business law firm here to assist…

We know how complicated and time consuming this looks. Which is why we’re here to help you get your new policy sorted and out of the way as quickly as possible.

Give us a call on +44 (0)131 622 9222