A summary of all the ‘Family’ Leave and pay available to staff in Great Britain (England, Wales Scotland.)
Details of entitlements in Northern Ireland are summarised here.
Who is Entitled to? |
How much leave are staff entitled to? |
What pay are staff entitled to? |
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Maternity Leave and Pay: |
All pregnant employees are entitled to take 26 weeks’ statutory Ordinary Maternity Leave followed by 26 weeks’ Additional Maternity Leave.
PAYE workers are not entitled to statutory Maternity Leave, but they can take time off. Full details here.
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Adoption Leave and Pay: |
Adoption Leave is available when an employee adopts a child under the age of 18 and offers the same benefits as Maternity Leave.
PAYE workers are not entitled to statutory Adoption Leave, but they can take time off. |
Adoption Pay is available to employees and workers when adopting a child under the age of 18 and offers the same benefits as Maternity Pay, where staff meet the eligibility criteria.
Full details here. |
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Paternity Leave and Pay:
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Employees who have worked for their Employer for at least 26 weeks by the end of the 15th week before the expected birth/adoption week are entitled to Statutory Paternity Leave for a maximum of two weeks’ leave, following the birth or adoption of a child, or the start of a surrogacy arrangement.
From 6th April 2024, the leave can be taken in one block of 2 weeks or two blocks of 1 week. PAYE workers are not entitled to statutory Paternity Leave, but they can take time off. At some point, possibly in 2025, Paternity Leave will be extended to fathers and partners, where the mother of a child dies shortly after the child’s birth (or the adoptive/surrogacy parent dies). The 26 week minimum service requirement will be removed and so this right will be a Day 1 right. There may also be other changes to Paternity Leave, but until regulations are published to bring these new rights into law, it is not yet clear. The Law is called the Paternity Leave (Bereavement) Act 2024 and was passed into law in 2024, with the intention the new rights would come into force in April 2025. |
Statutory Paternity Pay is paid to any employee or worker who has worked for the sma e Employer for at least 26 weeks (by the end of the 15th week before the expected birth/adoption).
It is paid at a fixed rate per week (or 90% of average earnings if that is less). From 6 April, 2025 the fixed rate will be £187.18 per week. To be eligible for statutory paternity pay, the employee or worker must be one or both of the following: · the father of the expected baby, · married to, the civil partner of or partner of the mother or birth parent – this includes same-sex partners. Full details here.
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Shared Parental Leave and Pay:
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Shared Parental Leave allows eligible employees to choose how to share the care of their child during the first year of birth or adoption
SPL can only be used by two people: · The mother/adopter and · One of the following: – the father of the child (in the case of birth) or – the spouse, civil partner or partner of the child’s mother/ adopter. Parents having a child through a surrogacy arrangement will also be entitled to shared parental leave and pay, if they meet the eligibility criteria. The Shared Parental Leave entitlement Eligible employees are entitled to take up to 50 weeks SPL during the child’s first year in their family. The number of weeks available is calculated using the mother’s/adopter’s entitlement to maternity/ adoption leave of 52 weeks. If they take less than their 52 weeks maternity/adoption leave entitlement then they and/or their partner may opt-in to the SPL system and take any remaining weeks as SPL. |
Eligible parents can get up to 37 weeks of statutory shared parental pay.
Employees and workers can claim shared parental pay (from 6 April, 2025 this will be £187.18 per week) for any remaining weeks after the birth parent or primary adopter stops their: · maternity pay · adoption pay · Maternity Allowance. Further information is available on the Acas website as this is complicated. Our article about this is here.
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Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay: |
This entitlement allows bereaved employees who have:
– suffered the loss of a child (under the age of 18), or – who have suffered a stillbirth after 24 weeks of pregnancy, – had an abortion after 24 weeks of pregnancy to be absent from work with pay for up to 2 weeks. Bereavement Leave is not available to workers. Bereavement Leave is a Day 1 right. This leave can be taken as a single block of two weeks, or two separate blocks of one week at different times. The leave cannot be taken as individual days. This entitlement is separate to the statutory right to take time off to deal with an emergency (see below). |
Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay is available to employee’s and workers with at least 26 weeks continuous employment with their employer, who have normal weekly earnings (in the 8 weeks up to the week before the child’s death), on or above the lower earnings limit for National Insurance contributions purposes (£125 from 6th April 2025).
This entitlement is separate to the statutory right to take time off to deal with an emergency (see below). Full details here.
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Neonatal Care Leave and Pay: |
This will be a new statutory right for employees to take paid leave from work if their child needs neonatal care after 6th April 2025.
This new leave will be in addition to any other statutory leave that parents are entitled to, e.g. maternity leave, adoption leave, paternity leave, etc. How much leave can be taken? Eligible employees can take one week’s leave for each week that the baby receives neonatal care without interruption. The maximum leave that can be taken is 12 weeks. When can NCL be taken? NCL can be taken while the child is still receiving neonatal care, or taken later, by adding it onto the end of other leave the employee is entitled to, e.g. maternity and paternity leave. However, it must be taken within 68 weeks of the baby’s birth (or placement/entry into Great Britain for adoption cases). |
Statutory Neonatal Care Pay – SNCP
An employee must have at least 26 weeks’ continuous employment, and be earning above the minimum earnings threshold (which will be £125 per week from April 2025) to be eligible for Neonatal Care Pay. The rate of neonatal care pay will be the same as the other statutory payments for maternity, paternity, adoption leave, etc. So, from 6 April, 2025 this will be £187.18 per week or 90% of the employee’s average weekly earnings, if lower. Full details here.
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Parental Leave: |
Any employee who has or expects to have responsibility for a child (whether through pregnancy or adoption) is entitled to take Parental Leave to care for that child.
To be eligible to take Parental Leave, an employee must have been employed by the Company for at least one year. Parental Leave is 18 weeks’ unpaid leave for all children. It can be taken at any time up to the child’s 18th birthday. Full details here. |
No statutory payment is available. | |
Time Off for Dependants Leave: |
Employees are legally entitled to take a reasonable amount of time off to deal with certain emergencies involving certain dependants – for example, if a dependant falls ill, is injured, if care arrangements break down, or to arrange or attend a dependant’s funeral.
Any time taken off must be necessary and reasonable in the particular circumstances and must be agreed in advance by the Company. Full details here. |
No statutory payment is available.
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Carers Leave: |
From 6th April 2024 there is a new right for Employees to take 1 weeks’ unpaid Carers Leave each calendar year, from Day 1 of their employment.
The leave is intended to allow Employees to take time off to provide, or arrange, care for a dependant who has long-term care needs. Full details here. |
No statutory payment is available. |