The following individuals may be entitled to Shared Parental Leave (SPL):
- the person taking maternity leave / adoption leave; and
- one of the following:
- Biological father of the child; or
- Spouse, civil partner or partner of the mother or birth parent, who themselves expects to have responsibility for the child's upbringing; or
- Employee who is adopting a child but is not taking adoption leave;
- Employee who is having a child via surrogacy but is not taking adoption
Throughout this policy, the following terms are used:
- ‘mother’ to refer to the person taking maternity leave.
- ‘adopter’ to refer to the person taking adoption leave.
- ‘partner’ to refer to the spouse, civil partner or someone (whether of the same sex or a different sex) living with the mother/adopter in an enduring family relationship (but is not the mother/adopter’s child, parent, grandchild, grandparent, sibling, aunt, uncle, niece or nephew).
Both parents must share the main responsibility for the care of the child at the time of the birth/placement for adoption.
Additionally an employee seeking to take Shared Parental Leave must satisfy all of the following criteria:
- where the employee is the mother/adopter of the child they must be entitled to statutory maternity/adoption leave;
- where the employee is the father or spouse or partner of the mother/adopter, the mother/adopter must be entitled to statutory maternity pay (SMP) or statutory adoption pay (SAP), statutory maternity or adoption leave, or maternity allowance (MA);
- the employee must have a minimum of 26 weeks' continuous employment at the end of the Qualifying Week;
- the employee must still be employed by the University in the week before the leave is to be taken;
- the other parent must meet the ‘employment and earnings test’, requiring them to have worked for at least 26 of 66 weeks in an employed or self-employed capacity before the Expected Week of Childbirth or, in the case of adoption, the Qualifying Week, and to have earned an average of at least the maternity allowance threshold in any 13 weeks of those 66 weeks (see current rates).
- both parents must give the necessary statutory notices and declarations (as summarised below), including notice to end any maternity or adoption leave, SMP or SAP, or MA periods.
The Expected Week of Childbirth (EWC) is the week, beginning on a Sunday, in which the doctor or midwife expects the child to be born.
The Qualifying Week is the 15th week before the Expected week of Childbirth (EWC) or, where the child is being adopted, the week the adoption agency notifies the employee that they have been matched with a child for adoption