Your complete guide to Shared Parental Leave in the UK

Help employees plan shared parental leave with confidence

Shared Parental Leave gives eligible parents more choice over how they share time away from work during the first year after a child’s birth or placement. Parents may be able to share up to 50 weeks of leave and up to 37 weeks of pay, subject to the statutory eligibility rules. For employers, the process involves more than recording dates. You need to handle eligibility information, notices, leave blocks, payroll and communication with care.

Our guide explains how Shared Parental Leave works and what to consider when creating an internal policy.

What will you learn from the guide?

The guide gives employers a practical overview of:

• what Shared Parental Leave is and how it works;

• the main eligibility and notice requirements;

• how maternity and adoption leave interact with Shared Parental Leave;

• Statutory Shared Parental Pay and payroll administration;

• what to include in an internal policy;

• why clear communication matters to employees and managers;

• ways to plan leave and pay records more consistently.

How does Shared Parental Leave work?

Eligible parents can share leave during the first year after the child’s birth or placement. They may take leave at the same time, in separate periods or in blocks, depending on their circumstances and the notices they give.

A parent or adopter may need to end their maternity or adoption leave and pay before the remaining entitlement can be used as Shared Parental Leave. The detailed steps depend on the family’s circumstances, so employers should check the employee’s notices and the current GOV.UK guidance.

An employee must usually give at least eight weeks’ notice of the leave they want to take. GOV.UK explains the written notices and information an employer may request. :citeb8n

Check eligibility before confirming dates

Eligibility depends on the parents’ employment, earnings, responsibility for the child and the way maternity or adoption leave is ended. A parent may be eligible for leave but not for pay, or the family may qualify in a different way where one parent is self-employed.

Use a consistent checklist. Record the notices received, the dates requested and any information needed to assess the statutory conditions. Do not treat the guide as a substitute for checking the current official rules.

Record pay accurately

For the 2026/27 tax year, Statutory Shared Parental Pay is £194.32 per week or 90% of average weekly earnings, whichever is lower, for employees who meet the relevant conditions. :citebl4Pay is processed through payroll. Employers should check the current HMRC guidance for reporting, recovery and National Insurance treatment rather than relying on an old guide or a previous tax year’s rate. If the family’s leave pattern also involves paternity leave, our employer guide to paternity leave provides useful context.

Why create a Shared Parental Leave policy?

The statutory scheme sets minimum rules. An internal policy explains how your organisation applies those rules in practice.

A useful policy should set out who employees contact, what notices they need to provide, how the business records leave, how pay is handled and how managers communicate with employees. It should also explain how the organisation approaches requests for leave in blocks and how it manages handovers and cover. Where parents use KIT or SPLIT days, the policy should explain how those days are recorded and managed.

Clear information helps employees understand the process and gives managers a consistent framework. It does not remove the need to assess each request against the statutory scheme.