Shared Parental Leave Explained
8 minute read
Note: this is not legal advice, please don’t rely on it!
Everything employers need to know
The current UK statutory paternity leave offer is two weeks, paid at £174 a week. Since 2015, this has been supplemented by Shared Parental Leave, an option created with the best of intentions to allow greater equality between mother and father (or co-parent of either sex). It allows the father or partner to share some of the mother’s 52 weeks of maternity leave. It’s a good idea on paper which has not made the waves it might have done: it’s currently estimated that the take-up rate of Shared Parental Leave sits at only around 7% of eligible couples (That Works for Me Careers After Babies Report, January 2023).
This is mostly because of the endless complicated paperwork. And the fact that, while fathers are allowed to take this leave by law, employers do not have to pay them properly for it. The benefits of fathers spending time with their newborns have been well documented; better bonds between parent and child, more even distribution of childcare responsibilities for the child’s life, happier families. And if you look at Scandinavian countries, a more equal society too (34% more equal than the UK, based on the gender pay gap).
What is Shared Parental Leave?
Basically, it’s a way for both parents to share the maternal allowance of up to 52 weeks’ Statutory Maternity Leave. This allows fathers and partners to take leave, separately or together with the mother, beyond the basic two-week Statutory Paternity Leave allowance, in exchange for the mother sacrificing some of her own time off and pay award.
This isn’t the same thing as enhanced Paternity Leave - whereby an individual company might choose to offer longer than statutory Paternity Leave and Pay for their employees, and which can run concurrently to the mother’s leave period without impacting her Statutory Maternity Pay.
Shared Parental Leave is instead a financial revolving door - one in, one out.
Using Shared Parental Leave, parents are entitled to share up to 50 weeks of leave between them (the first two weeks of leave are ring-fenced for the mother). This needs to happen in the baby’s or child’s first year with you, either in blocks of time or all in one go, and either alongside the mother’s leave or whilst she’s back at work.
And Shared Parental Pay?
Parents can share up to 37 weeks’ pay between them. This is paid at the same amount and timescale as Statutory Maternity Pay after the first six weeks - the lower of £172.48 a week or 90% of average weekly earnings. The first six weeks of Statutory Maternity Pay are paid at 90% of earnings (with no maximum) - so it wouldn’t make financial sense for a woman to forgo any part of her first six weeks of pay for Shared Parental Pay.
Who’s eligible for Shared Parental Leave and Shared Parental Pay?
Eligible employees in either maternal or paternal role should give you at least eight weeks’ notice of the start of their proposed leave date. They will then need to give up some of their maternity or adoption leave and pay - this is where it gets a bit complicated (and, presumably, where some of the 93% of people who don’t take up the Shared Parental Leave option give up).
Employees are entitled to book up to three separate blocks of Shared Parental Leave (or more if you allow it), or take it all in one go, even if they are not sharing the leave with their partner. They can take this leave at the same time as or separate from their partner.
Breaking this down:
If a woman wants her partner to take Shared Parental Leave, she needs to take less than 52 weeks off herself and can then use the remainder as Shared Parental Leave.
If a woman wants her partner to have Shared Parental Pay, she needs to take less than 39 weeks of Statutory Maternity or Adoption Pay (or Statutory Maternity Allowance) and use the rest as Shared Parental Pay.
So...
Worked example: your account manager Marie takes five months of Statutory Maternity Leave (22 weeks), paid at the normal rate of Statutory Maternity Pay. She can then gift her partner with, or share, the remaining seven months (30 weeks) of leave and remaining three-ish months (17 weeks) of Shared Parental Pay. Marie and her partner decide to split the rest of her leave, and both take three and a half months off simultaneously to go travelling in the Andes in a camper van kitted out with a nappy change table. Marie receives Statutory Shared Parental Pay for the first three months of this. She and her partner both return to work at eight and a half months post-birth as they’ve effectively used up their leave allowance for the year - they just had a really good time doing it.
Who can take it?
Anyone eligible who is having, adopting, fostering, or using a surrogate to have a baby.
So what’s the bottom line here?
As an employer, you are usually entitled to reclaim 92% of employees’ Statutory Maternity Pay from HMRC, and 103% if your business qualifies for Small Employers’ Relief. You can also ask for assistance if you cannot afford to make Statutory Maternity Pay payments through an online application for advance payment from HMRC.
What’s the process for employers?
The process for Statutory Shared Parental Leave and Pay echoes that of the other forms of statutory support available. In short: you pay your employee and the government will pay you back. Pay attention here - you need to submit the right paperwork at the right time to ensure this happens.
There are some forms you will need to fill in:
To reclaim the money paid out to employees as Statutory Shared Parental Pay, you must calculate how much you are due to receive back from HMRC via your payroll software and then include these figures in an Employer Payment Summary, which you send to HMRC alongside your monthly Full Payment Submission.
This should be done by whoever deals with HR or payroll for you.
You are responsible for keeping records of the shared leave period for HMRC for at least 3 tax years.
You’ll need records of the evidence provided by your employee to prove eligibility for Shared Parental Pay, the date the pay began, the dates and amounts of any payments paid out and reclaimed, and information on any weeks you didn’t pay and the reason why.
If you believe that your employee is not eligible for Statutory Parental Leave or Pay you simply give them your decision (and why, in the case of pay) - there’s no specific form to fill in.
And one more thing…
Employees are also entitled to take up to 20 optional ‘Shared Parental Leave In Touch’ (SPLIT) days as well as the 10 ‘Keeping In Touch’ (KIT) days available to those on maternity or adoption leave.
🔑 Key point: both partners can share up to 50 weeks’ leave and pay between them after the initial two week post-birth period.
👀 Watchout: only around 7% of eligible couples take it because it’s a complex solution that companies don’t have confidence in offering and employees don’t have confidence in taking up.
📄 Documents: see the links above, plus ACAS have some helpful government-approved template ones to use here.
💡 Need to know: as well as what you’d normally know about a planned maternity or paternity leave period, you’ll need to know a bit about your employee’s partner, including when their leave and pay periods end. You also have the right to ask for a copy of the birth certificate or a declaration of the place and date of birth (if the birth has not been registered yet) and either the name and address of the partner’s employer or a declaration that the partner has no employer.
📖 A note on language
We've chosen our words based on the government's policy playbook to avoid ambiguity - with the caveat that we know that families come in all shapes and sizes. We believe parents are whoever loves and cares for a child. But for the sake of clarity:
- 'maternity' or 'mother' refers to the pregnant woman - the biological mother (including surrogates)
- 'paternity' or 'father' can refer to the baby's father; the husband or partner of the mother (or adopter) - this includes same-sex partners; the child’s adopter; or the intended parent (if you’re having a baby through a surrogacy arrangement)
📖 Note on accuracy
We have provided this as a helpful way to navigate the UK rules, but please don’t rely on it to make business decisions. Seek professional advice if you need it.
Also note that the UK rules might change quicker than we can update the information. The top of the page shows when we last updated the information.
If you spot anything that you think we’ve got wrong, or has since changed, please let us know, and you’ll be our bff.