This article provides guidance on the parental leave provisions contained in the Maternity and Parental Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2001

What is parental leave?

Parental leave offers qualifying parents the right to take up to 13 weeks unpaid time off work to look after a child or make arrangements for their welfare.

Parental leave should only be taken to care for the welfare of a child, for example an employee may wish to take leave to:

• Stay with a child who is in hospital
• To spend more time with a child
• To make school / childcare arrangements and to help them settle in.

Who qualifies for Parental Leave?

If an employee has completed one year’s service with an employer, they are entitled to 13 weeks unpaid parental leave for each child born or adopted. The leave can start once the child is born or placed for adoption, or as soon as the employee has completed a year’s service, whichever is later.

The employee must either be the parent:

• named on the child’s birth certificate
• named on the child’s adoption certificate
• with legal parental responsibility for a child under five (under 18 if the child is disabled)

If the parents are separated and the employee does not live with their children, the employee has the right to parental leave if he/she keeps formal parental responsibility for the children.

Foster parents do not have rights to parental leave but may be able to request a flexible working pattern.

Employers can ask for evidence that the employee is entitled to parental leave. This could be:

• the child’s birth certificate
• papers confirming the child’s adoption or the date of placement in adoption cases
• the award of disability living allowance for the child

Employees can take the Parental Leave at any time up to the child’s fifth birthday (or until five years after placement in the case of adoption).

If the child has disabilities, the employee can take 18 weeks up to the child’s 18th birthday.

How is Parental Leave requested?

A request should be made to the employer giving 21 days notice of the start date of the parental leave, the employer may ask for this to be in writing.

As long as the employee qualifies for parental leave and gives the employer the correct notice the employee should be able to take parental leave at any time.

To take parental leave straight after the birth or adoption of a child, an employee should give notice 21 days before the beginning of the expected week of childbirth or placement. In cases where this may not be possible the employee should give notice to the employer as soon as possible. For example, if a child is born prematurely or where less than 21 days notice is given that a child is to be placed with you for adoption.

An employee will remain employed while on parental leave and terms of their contract of employment, such as contractual notice and redundancy terms, still apply.

At the end of parental leave the employee has the right to return to the same job as before or, if that is not practicable, a similar job with the same or better status and terms and conditions.  If leave is taken for a period of four weeks or less, the employee is entitled to go back to the same job.

Can the employer postpone parental leave?

An employer can only postpone parental leave if they have a good business reason for doing so. For example seasonal production, another member of staff is off or the staff absence would harm the business.

Parental leave can be postponed for up to 6 months but can not be postponed so that the leave ends after the child’s fifth birthday (or 18 in the case of adopted or disabled children).

How long can an employee take off in a year?

The default arrangement does not allow anyone to take off more than 4 weeks in any year. However, if the employer agrees to more parental leave being taken then it may be possible.

Is parental leave paid or unpaid?

Statutory parental leave is unpaid, but an employer can offer other arrangements as part of the terms and conditions of employment.

See other articles related to Parental leave: Flexible Working