Work and families

Rights to time off for parents

Parents, provided they meet certain qualifying criteria, can benefit from a variety of rights to time off as follows:

parents with one year’s continuous service can take parental leave of 13 weeks per child or 18 weeks where the child is entitled to disability living allowance
women can take a year's maternity leave
an adoptive parent may be eligible for a year's leave to look after a newly-adopted child
two weeks' paternity leave is available to a partner of a woman who has had a baby or the partner of a person who is adopting a child
all employees can take reasonable unpaid leave to take action in relation to dependants

Maternity and adoption leave

all women, regardless of length of service, are entitled to both ordinary and additional maternity leave – one year’s leave in total. (The qualifying service required for adoption leave (both ordinary and additional) remains at 26 weeks by the end of the notification week).
statutory maternity and statutory adoption pay is payable for 39 weeks. The flat rate from 4 April 2010 is £124.88 per week.
employees are able to work for up to 10 days during their maternity or adoption leave without losing pay or ending their leave (keeping in touch days)

For full details of the maternity scheme in the national conditions of service (the ‘Green Book’) see NJC circular 507: maternity and adoption leave.

Terms and conditions

An employee is entitled to receive the same terms and conditions during both ordinary and additional maternity and adoption leave. Therefore, such terms as the accrual of annual leave and bank holidays, the payment of essential car user allowance, the provision of a lease car and child care vouchers should continue to apply during additional maternity and adoption leave periods. (For employees employed under Green Book terms and conditions, annual leave already accrues during ordinary and additional maternity leave (paragraph 11.8(b) of Part Two of the Green Book).

An employee must return from maternity or adoption leave with their seniority, pension rights and similar rights as they would have been if they had not been absent, regardless of whether any additional leave has been taken. This means that the whole of the maternity or adoption leave period must count, for example, for the purpose of accruing the service needed for an increase to annual leave. Additional maternity leave must be taken into account for the purpose of receiving a service-related pay increment.

Pensions

An employer must pay its contributions when an employee is on ordinary leave, regardless of whether they receive any statutory or occupational maternity or adoption pay. During the additional leave period, an employer need only pay contributions if an employee is receiving statutory or occupational maternity or adoption leave pay. Any unpaid period of additional leave will therefore not count towards pensionable service. However, employees can elect to pay contributions for such periods. For details of the pension implications of taking statutory leave see LGPC circular 215 (PDF, 15 pages, 193KB).

Return to work

If an employee only takes ordinary maternity or adoption leave she is entitled to return to the job in which she was employed before her leave commenced. If she takes additional leave her employer can offer a suitable alternative job if it is not reasonably practicable for it to allow her to return to her previous job.

What's new - Additional Paternity Leave & Pay

The regulations providing for additional paternity leave became law on 6 April 2010. Under the new scheme mothers will be able to transfer the last six months of their maternity leave to the child's father. This right will apply where the child is due on or after 3 April 2011 or is expected to be placed on or after this date.

Currently employed fathers can take up to two weeks' statutory paternity leave and pay, and mothers receive a maximum of 52 weeks' maternity leave, of which up to 39 weeks are paid. The new scheme is aimed at giving mothers and fathers more choice in child care responsibilities and a more equitable sharing of leave entitlements. It will mean that:

families will have the choice to transfer up to six months' leave to the child's father should they want to, which can be taken by the father once the mother has returned to work;
father's can start to take this leave from 20 weeks after the child is born, giving parents the option of dividing a period of paid leave entitlement between them;
some of the leave may be paid if taken during what would have been the mother's 39 week statutory pay period. Father's would receive the same rate of statutory maternity/adoption pay;
parents would be required to "self-certify" this new entitlement by providing details of their eligibility to their employer.
the new right applies to the partner or civil partner of the child's mother or adopter

Who does the right apply to?

As with Ordinary Paternity Leave, Additional Paternity Leave is not limited to ‘fathers’. It will apply to:

fathers
partners and civil partners of mothers
the partner or civil partner of a person adopting a child from Great Britain
and those adopting from overseas where the child enters Great Britain on or after 3 April 2011.

How much leave can be taken?

A minimum of two consecutive weeks and a maximum of 26 consecutive weeks.

When can leave be taken?

Leave can commence any time from 20 weeks after the child is born (or adopted) and must end by 12 months after the child is born (or adopted).

What other conditions are attached?

The father (including partner, civil partner, adopter) must have been eligible for Statutory Paternity Leave (i.e. have been continuously employed by the same employer for at least 26 weeks by the 15th week before the baby is due, or in the case of adoption be employed for 26 weeks by the week the adopter is matched with the child for adoption) and still be in the same employment until the week before he starts Additional Paternity Leave.

The father must have responsibility for the upbringing of the child.

The mother must have been eligible for:

maternity leave,
Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), or
Maternity Allowance (MA),

have signed a declaration (see below) and have returned to work.

Evidential requirements

The government has stated that this right is to be implemented in a ‘light touch’ manner, although measures need to be in place to ensure that the father has the right to take the leave. This is mainly going to be achieved by self-certification, although the father’s employer may carry out certain additional checks to verify information.

The father must provide a number of pieces of additional evidence not less than 8 weeks before the date chosen for additional paternity leave to begin. These are:

1. details of the expected week of the child’s birth (or date the adopter was matched with the child), the actual date of the child’s birth (or date when the child was placed with the adopter) and the dates which he has chosen for the leave to commence and end;

2. confirmation that he has responsibility for the upbringing of the child, is the father or married to, the partner or civil partner or the child's mother or adopter and will be taking leave for the purpose of caring for the child; and

3. a declaration from the mother confirming her name and address, the date she intends to return to work and her National Insurance number. She must also confirm the issues in paragraph 2 above, that the 'father' is the only person taking paternity leave and that the information can be processed by the father's employer.

The employer may additionally request that the father supply a copy of the child’s birth certificate and the name and address of the mother’s employer, which must be provided within 28 days. In the case of adoption, a document from the adoption agency showing the name and address of the agency, the date that the adopter was notified of matching and the expected date of placement.

Other details

The regulations contain other rights and obligations familiar to other family friendly rights, e.g. notice provisions to change a proposed period of leave or to return early, rights to return to the same job, not to be selected for redundancy, ability to work ‘Keep in Touch’ days and measures to take account of the consequences if the mother dies.

Additional Statutory Paternity Pay

A father who is eligible for Additional Paternity Leave may then be entitled to Additional Statutory Paternity Pay (ASPP), although there are a number of further conditions.

A father will only be eligible for Additional Statutory Paternity Pay if:

the child’s mother was entitled to Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) or Maternity Allowance (MA) or the child’s adopter was entitled to Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP); and
the child’s mother (or adopter) has returned to work

In that case the father will be eligible to receive Additional Statutory Paternity Pay only during the mother’s maternity pay period, i.e. the 39 weeks following the date she commenced her Statutory Maternity Pay.

A father will then qualify for Additional Standard Paternity Pay if his normal weekly earnings are above the Lower Earnings Limit for National Insurance purposes (currently £97 per week) for the eight weeks before the relevant week (i.e. 15th week before the baby is due, or in the case of adoption the week the adopter is matched with the child for adoption).

Evidential requirements

The father must provide a number of pieces of additional evidence to his employer not less than 8 weeks before the date when Additional Statutory Paternity Pay is to commence. These are:

1. details of the expected week of the child’s birth (or placement for adoption), the actual date of the child’s birth (or placement for adoption), the date it is expected that Additional Statutory Paternity Pay will begin and the date it is expected to end;

2. confirmation that he has responsibility for the upbringing of the child and will be taking leave for the purpose of caring for the child; and

3. a declaration signed by the mother confirming her name and address and National Insurance number, the date her maternity pay period (or maternity allowance period or adoption pay period) started, that she intends to return to work and that she has given notice to her employer that she is returning to work . She must also confirm that the father is the only person applying for APP and that the father's employer can process the information.

Extension of Statutory Maternity Pay postponed

The government has announced it will not go ahead with the planned extension of statutory maternity pay (SMP) from nine months to twelve months.

The government had planned to implement this policy by April 2010 but has put these plans on hold indefinitely. However the government remains committed to the policy in principle of extending SMP.

FAQs

Frequently asked questions covering the changes to maternity leave and adoption leave over the last two years plus other common issues.

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