Shared Parental Leave and Pay: How to Split Time Off with Your Partner

Shared Parental Leave (SPL) is a system designed to give parents greater choice and flexibility in how they split childcare responsibilities during the first year of their child's life.

Instead of the mother taking the standard 52 weeks of maternity leave while the partner takes up to 2 weeks of paternity leave, SPL allows the birth mother to end her maternity leave early. The untaken weeks of leave and pay are then converted into a flexible pool that both parents can draw from, allowing them to take time off together or split the leave in alternating blocks.

The birth mother is legally required to take at least **2 weeks of compulsory maternity leave** immediately after childbirth (or 4 weeks if she works in a factory) for health and safety reasons.

Once those compulsory weeks are accounted for, the remaining allocation is unlocked for sharing:

• Up to **50 weeks** of Shared Parental Leave can be divided between the parents.
• Up to **37 weeks** of Statutory Shared Parental Pay (ShPP) can be shared, paid at the standard rate of **£194.32 per week** (or 90% of your average weekly earnings, whichever is lower).

Parents can choose to be off work at the exact same time, effectively using up the shared pool twice as fast, or they can alternate blocks of leave so that one parent is always home with the baby.

Because SPL is a highly technical, joint-entitlement scheme, both parents must meet different eligibility criteria for either parent to utilize the leave:

• **The parent taking the leave** must be a legally classed employee and pass the continuous employment test (working for their employer for at least 26 weeks by the 15th week before the due date).
• **Their partner** must satisfy the employment and earnings test, meaning they must have worked (either as an employee or self-employed contractor) for at least 26 weeks out of the 66 weeks leading up to the due date, earning a total of at least £390 across those weeks.
• **Both parents** must share main responsibility for caring for the child at the time of birth.

To kickstart the process, the birth mother must submit a formal, binding **maternity curtailment notice** to her employer, stating the exact date she intends to bring her maternity leave to an end.

Both parents must then provide their respective employers with a written notice of entitlement and intention to take SPL, alongside a specific period of leave notice at least **8 weeks** before the start of any requested block.

Under statutory rules, you can request your leave in up to three separate blocks. If you request a single, continuous block of leave, your employer cannot legally refuse it. However, if you request discontinuous blocks (such as working every other week), your employer has the right to negotiate or refuse the request if it does not fit their business needs.