Apply for shared parental leave
This guide is for employees who are mothers/primary adopters or partners of the mother/primary adopter. Shared parental leave allows parents to care for a new child in a more flexible way, by sharing up to 52 weeks of leave in blocks, for the first year after the child's birth/adoption.
Before you start
Assuming you meet the eligibility tests, you must give at least eight weeks' notice of your intention to take shared parental leave.
- 1. Read the Parental Leave and Pay policy. Book a consultation with the Employment Policy team
The policy contains the full details of entitlements and eligibility. You can also book a consultation with the Employment Policy team.
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Book a consultation
Leave must be taken during the 12 months following the birth or adoption of a child.
An employee can choose to end her maternity or adoption leave at any time after the required two-week period. She can then share the rest of the leave with her partner.
Parents can share a maximum of 50 weeks of leave.
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- 2. Work out what leave you want to request
Think about when you want to end your maternity or adoption leave and start any period(s) of shared parental leave.
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Any period of maternity or adoption leave taken by the mother or primary adoptive parent will be taken away from the 50 weeks' shared parental leave entitlement. The remaining weeks can then be shared between the parents. The leave should be:
- for a minimum of one week
- in multiples of complete weeks
- one continuous period or up to three discontinuous periods.
- 3. Talk to your manager
We strongly encourage you to speak to your manager as soon as you can about your shared parental leave plans.
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Your manager will need as much notice as possible so they can arrange to cover your periods of leave.
- 4. Complete the online Shared Parental Leave form
All three forms have been combined into one and can be accessed via the link below, please specify whether you are the mother/primary parent at the start of the form so that you can be redirected to the relevant areas of the form.
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- Fill out the Online Shared Parental Leave application form. Please select whether you are the mother/primary parent when prompted in the form.
- Once you have completed your form, it will be automatically sent to your line manager to sign off.
- 5. Form goes to your line manager/PI
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- Your line manager will receive the form automatically via email once you have completed your section of the online form.
- Your line manager will then need to sign the form after they have been able to provide details of how they propose to cover your duties.
- If you are grant funded, the PI section is designed to act as a visual prompt for your PI to notify your funder to ensure that your Grant funding is not impacted by you going on leave.
- Once they have signed the form, it will automatically be sent to HR Services to process your application.
- 6. Form goes to HR Services
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- Once your line manager signs off their section, it will be automatically be sent to HR Services to process.
- Within four weeks of receiving your application, HR Services will email you to confirm your Shared Parental Leave has been processed.
(Please note: If you need to book of another block of Shared Parental leave or amend your blocks of leave already submitted, please fill out the Online Shared Parental Leave PLN (V) form.
- 7. Applying for additional blocks of Shared Parental leave
Fill out the Shared Parental PLN(V) form in order to apply for additional blocks of leave.
(Please be aware that you can take up to 3 blocks of leave within a 12 month period, and your original Shared Parental leave application will count as one block.)
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- Fill out the Shared Parental PLN (V) application form.
- Once you have completed your form, it will be automatically sent to your line manager to sign off.
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