At Automata, we are committed to supporting parents in the care of their child. Shared Parental Leave (SPL) is designed to give parents more flexibility in how to share the care of their child in the first year following birth or adoption.
Parents are able to share a pot of leave and can decide to be off work at the same time and / or take it in turns to have periods of leave to look after their child.
Shared Parental Leave enables the mother to commit to ending her Maternity Leave and Pay at a future date, and to share the untaken balance of leave and pay as Shared Parental Leave and Pay with her partner, or to return to work early from Maternity Leave and opt into Shared Parental Leave and Pay at a later date.
You can share up to 50 weeks of leave and up to 37 weeks of pay between you. You need to share the pay and leave in the first year after your child is born or placed with your family. You can use SPL to take leave in blocks separated by periods of work, or take it all in one go. You can also choose to be off work together or to stagger the leave and pay.
This policy covers all employees. It does not apply to agency workers or self-employed contractors.
To be eligible for Shared Parental Leave (SPL) and Statutory Shared Parental Pay (ShPP), both parents must:
You are not eligible for SPL if you started sharing responsibility for the child after the birth.
If both parents want to share the SPL and ShPP, you and your partner must:
have been employed continuously by the same employer for at least 26 weeks by the end of the 15th week before the due date (this is around the time you got pregnant)
If the mother’s partner wants to take the SPL and ShPP the mother must:
The mother’s partner must: