Important: The Shared Parental Leave Policy and guidance below applies if your Expected Week of Childbirth (Maternity) or Expected Placement Date (Adoption) was before 01 September 2024.
If your Expected Week of Childbirth (Maternity) or Expected Placement Date (Adoption) is on or after 01 September 2024, the new Shared Parental Leave and Pay Policy and Guidance applies. Please visit the Family Life SharePoint site to view further details.
If you are unsure which policy applies to you, please contact Ask HR.
Shared Parental Leave
Shared Parental Leave enables eligible mothers, fathers, partners and adopters to choose how to share time off work after their child is born or placed for adoption. This could involve returning to work for part of the time and then resuming leave at a later date.
Qualifying mothers and adopters continue to be entitled to Maternity and Adoption rights but they may also be able to choose to end this early and exchange it for shared parental leave and pay. They and their named partner will then need to decide how they want to share this new entitlement.
Two weeks of paid paternity leave continues to be available to qualifying fathers and the partner of a mother or adopter. However, Shared Parental Leave has replaced the additional paternity leave entitlement.
The University's policy on Shared Parental Leave is available under 'Related documents', below.
You should notify HR 1) of your entitlement to Shared Parental Leave and 2) of your intention to take Shared Parental Leave using the forms available under 'Related documents', below.