Shared Parental Leave (SPL) was introduced back in 2015. The introduction of this new legislation was to recognise that both parents have responsibility for childcare. SPL allows the eligible women to share leave with their partner. It has been reported that just 1% of eligible mothers and 5% of eligible fathers/partners took up this entitlement previously, however the take up has increased over the last year. It is argued that the take up of SPL in the UK continues to be lower than other countries and needs to be improved.
How Does SPL Work?
SPL gives the employee and their partner more flexibility in how to share the care of their child in the first year after birth, than if they were taking maternity or paternity leave. If eligible, the employee will be able to choose how to split the available leave between them, and can decide to be off work at the same time or at different times. Employees may be able to take leave in more than one block.
Eligible employees are entitled to share up to 50 weeks of leave, and up to 39 weeks of pay. Employees will notify the employer, giving sufficient notice (normally eight weeks), when they are planning on taking leave.
This entitlement applies to adoption, where eligible parents can also share leave.
How to Communicate SPL Entitlement
To recognise SPL, employers should be communicating this entitlement to their employees. This can be done by ensuring that the SPL policy is included in the staff handbook and communicated regularly to ensure that employees have read and understand the content of the handbook.
Line managers should also be aware of the entitlement, so that they can refer employees to the staff handbook and the SPL policy.
Many employers are looking at their pay and benefits, to support their people attraction and retention programmes’, this includes reviewing the entitlements linked with family friendly policies. SPL entitles employees to the Statutory Shared Parental Pay (ShPP) amount of £184.03 (2024/2025 rate) a week or 90% of the employees average weekly earning, whichever is lower. Many businesses enhance the associated pay to support employees financially.
To discuss your Shared Parental Leave (SPL) and Statutory Shared Parental Pay (ShPP), and family friendly policies, please reach out to our team of HR Consultants on 0345 646 0406 or fill out our online enquiry form.