Shared Parental Leave Policy

Shared Parental Leave, which should not be confused with Parental Leave, is an entitlement for eligible parents to allow more flexibility in how they care for their child during the first year.

Key Points

The University has made improvements to its Maternity, Adoption, Paternity and Shared Parental Leave policies. These were implemented from 1 June 2023. To find out how these changes may affect you, please read these FAQs (staff intranet page) alongside the policy below.
Employed mothers/primary adopters will still be entitled to 52 weeks of maternity leave/adoption leave.
Eligible partners are still entitled to four weeks basic paternity leave.
Employees must remain in that employment when the leave is taken. Partners must also satisfy minimum employment and earnings criteria to be eligible.
Mothers/adopters will be entitled to curtail their leave after the compulsory two week maternity leave period and convert the unclaimed statutory entitlement into shared parental leave which can be taken by both parents (occupational maternity/adoption pay cannot be transferred).
Mothers/primary adopters will have to provide at least eight weeks’ written notice of their intention to end their maternity/adoption leave/pay period to take up shared parental leave, including confirmation of which eligible partner will be taking shared parental leave.
Both parents must give eight weeks’ notice (binding) of a request to take leave.
Employees may make up to three requests for Shared Parental Leave.
Each parent will have the right to request up to 20 Shared Parental Leave in Touch (SPLIT) days during Shared Parental Leave. This is addition to the 10 KIT days allowed in adoption/maternity leave.
Eligible mothers/adopters will still be entitled to 39 weeks statutory maternity/adoption pay.
Eligible partners will still be entitled to two weeks statutory paternity pay.
If the eligible parents take shared parental leave then the remaining weeks of statutory maternity/adoption pay can be transferred to statutory shared parental pay .
The total period of paid leave will not exceed 39 weeks, whichever parent takes the leave.
Additional paternity pay will be abolished.