Shared parental leave: who qualifies and how it works

If you are planning leave around a birth or adoption, you may be able to share up to 50 weeks away from work and 37 weeks of pay. But SPL is carved out of maternity or adoption entitlement, not added to it, and the eight-week notice clock can catch you out. Today, check both parents’ work history and pay, then message your employer for its SPL forms and enhanced-pay policy. Do that before agreeing an end date or changing shifts.

How sharing works

Maternity and adoption leave can last 52 weeks; statutory maternity or adoption pay can last 39 weeks. Shared parental leave (SPL) and statutory shared parental pay (ShPP) use the balance of those entitlements.

The mother must take at least two weeks’ maternity leave after birth, or four weeks if she works in a factory. A primary adopter must take at least two weeks’ adoption leave. To create SPL, they must then return to work or give binding notice to end their leave early. To create shared pay, they must also give notice to end statutory maternity or adoption pay, or Maternity Allowance. If they have no right to maternity or adoption leave, ending their statutory pay or Maternity Allowance can still create SPL for an eligible partner.

Subtract the maternity or adoption leave used up to the end date from 52 weeks to find your shared leave pool. Subtract the maternity pay, adoption pay or Maternity Allowance weeks used from 39 to find your shared pay pool. Leave and pay can start before birth, so count those weeks too. A partial week of maternity leave counts as a whole week.

If both leave and pay end after 20 weeks, you have 32 weeks of leave and 19 weeks of pay to share. Ending after the two-week minimum gives the usual maximum of 50 weeks’ leave and 37 weeks’ pay. These are totals for the couple, not each parent. Twins do not double them.

Either eligible parent can use the pool, and both can be off together. If you each take a week of SPL at the same time, you use two weeks from the pool. Take leave in whole weeks, starting on any day, within a year of birth or placement. You can split paid weeks differently from leave weeks, but not every week of SPL will be paid.

Who qualifies: the two tests

Check each parent separately. To take SPL yourself, you must pass the employee continuity test and your partner must pass the employment and earnings test. If you both want leave, you both need to pass both tests. One parent can take all the SPL even if the other cannot take any.

You must both share main responsibility for the child from birth. The partner can be the father, or the mother’s spouse, civil partner or partner at the date of birth, including a same-sex partner. Separated parents can qualify if they shared main responsibility at birth and care for the child during their SPL. The mother must also be entitled to maternity leave, statutory maternity pay or Maternity Allowance, and end the relevant entitlement early.

Pay has another test. Each parent claiming ShPP needs average weekly earnings at least equal to the lower earnings limit. It is £129 for a qualifying week in 2026/27, from 6 April 2026. Payroll normally calculates your average over an eight-week reference period up to the last normal payday on or before the end of the qualifying week. Use the earnings limit for that qualifying week, not simply the year your leave starts. You can qualify for SPL without qualifying for pay. If your hours vary, as they often do in care, retail or warehouse work, ask payroll to show the reference period and calculation in writing.

Adoption and surrogacy: which date counts?

For a UK adoption, including a qualifying foster care placement for adoption, the continuity test is 26 weeks with the same employer by the end of the week you are notified of the match. The other parent’s 66-week work and earnings window runs back from the match week too. You must share main responsibility from placement, and the primary adopter must be entitled to adoption leave or statutory adoption pay and end it early. At least two weeks’ adoption leave must be taken before it ends. See adoption leave: eligibility and pay.

For surrogacy, the continuity test uses the 15th week before the expected week of birth. Intended parents must have a parental order, or have applied or intend to apply within six months of birth and expect the court to grant it. One must qualify for adoption leave or statutory adoption pay. Our guide to surrogacy leave for intended parents explains that route. Overseas adoptions have modified rules, so do not use a UK match-week calculation without checking your circumstances.

An adoption certificate is not a condition of SPL. Your employer can request the agency or local authority’s name and address, the match and placement dates, and your partner’s employer details or a declaration that they have no employer. For a birth, they can request a birth certificate or, if it has not yet been registered, a declaration of the date and place of birth.

Who gets leave and who gets pay?

Your employment status determines your rights to leave and pay. SPL gives you time away from work with job protection and belongs to employees only. ShPP can cover people who have no right to SPL.

If you are a worker but not an employee, you have no right to SPL. You may qualify for ShPP. Its pay test normally needs 26 weeks with the same employer by the qualifying week, average earnings at least equal to the applicable lower earnings limit, and continued employment until the week before your first pay week. The responsibility, partner and maternity or adoption pay conditions still apply. Ask for paid holiday, agreed unpaid leave or special leave to cover your time away. A zero-hours contract or agency arrangement does not settle your status. Some people working that way are employees and can qualify for SPL. For example, a delivery rider or agency warehouse worker should not assume the contract label decides it. If your wages are below the minimum wage, that is wage theft. Report it to HMRC; the complaint can be made anonymously.

Self-employed parents get neither SPL nor ShPP themselves. Their work can help the other parent qualify. If you are unsure of your status, read are you an employee, worker or self-employed? and agency workers: what rights do they have?. A union can check your status and help you make a record of hours, payslips and rota changes. UNISON covers many health and care workers; Unite represents workers across hospitality and logistics; Usdaw represents many retail workers.

How much will you be paid?

From 6 April 2026, ShPP is £194.32 a week or 90% of your average weekly earnings, whichever is lower. These are gross amounts, before tax and National Insurance where due. The cap starts at average earnings of about £215.91 a week. On £180, you get £162. On £400, you get £194.32.

If your qualifying week falls in 2026/27 and your average earnings are £120, you fall below the £129 earnings limit. You can still take SPL if the leave conditions are met, but you get no ShPP. A mother with maternity leave but no entitlement to statutory maternity pay or Maternity Allowance can create shared leave, not a shared pay pool.

Give notice, then book your weeks

The usual deadline is eight weeks before leave starts. The notice ending maternity or adoption leave is separate from the notices each parent gives to take SPL, though you can submit them together. Use the Acas forms or your employer’s equivalents and keep a copy. After a long shift, do the small things first: photograph your rota and payslips, write down the due or match week, and email HR or your manager asking for the forms and enhanced-pay policy. Put the eight-week date in your phone. If that date is close, contact Acas promptly; do not wait for a meeting.

Changing booked dates normally needs eight weeks’ notice and uses another of your three notices. Changes requested by your employer, or caused by an early or late birth, do not count towards that limit. Special notice rules apply to early births, including babies born at least eight weeks before the expected week. Tell your employer as soon as reasonably practicable rather than assuming you must wait another eight weeks.

Your employer has 14 days after your entitlement notice to request the permitted evidence. You then have 14 days to supply it. If the birth-evidence request arrives before birth, supply the certificate or declaration within 14 days beginning on the birth date. Your partner’s employer details are still due within 14 days of the request.

Can your employer refuse?

If you qualify and give the required notice, your employer cannot refuse one continuous block. The distinction is how you book. Three separate notices for three continuous blocks secure those blocks as of right. One notice asking for all three with work in between is a discontinuous request, which the employer can refuse.

For a discontinuous request, there is a two-week period beginning when you give notice to agree a pattern. If no agreement is reached, you can withdraw the notice on or before the 15th day after giving it, without using one of your three notices. Otherwise, you can take the total requested leave as one continuous block.

To choose a different start date for that continuous block, tell your employer within five days after the two-week period ends. The date must be at least eight weeks after the original booking notice. If you do not choose a date, the block starts on the first date in your original request. These deadlines come from the SPL regulations; you do not need to submit a fresh eight-week notice.

Enhanced pay depends on your employer’s scheme and any contractual promise. It does not replace the statutory minimum. Dismissing you because you took or sought SPL is automatically unfair, without the usual service requirement. Subjecting you to a detriment for that reason is unlawful too. If your employer refuses eligible continuous leave or penalises you for requesting it, save the request, response, rota and payslips. Ask for the decision in writing. Contact Acas about early conciliation and time limits before a tribunal claim, and Citizens Advice or a law centre for help. A union can support you at work. If you believe the treatment was discrimination, the Equality and Human Rights Commission provides guidance. We think a right that costs workers shifts for using it is a right employers are being allowed to hollow out.

Your rights while off and when you return

Your contract terms continue during SPL, except remuneration. Holiday builds up as usual, including any bank holidays included in your entitlement. Arrange when to take it, and any necessary carry-over, with your employer.

Each parent can agree up to 20 shared-parental-leave-in-touch days, known as SPLIT days, without ending SPL. These are separate from the 10 keeping-in-touch days available during maternity or adoption leave. Neither you nor your employer can insist on them. Agree the work and pay in advance. Even part of a day uses one SPLIT day.

Priority for another job in a redundancy

During SPL, your employer must offer you a suitable alternative vacancy if one exists, ahead of employees without this protection. From 6 April 2024, taking at least six consecutive weeks of SPL also gives protection after that block, until 18 months after birth or placement. Separate shorter blocks do not add up to six consecutive weeks. Protection based on a shorter block ends with that block, unless you already have longer protection from maternity or adoption leave. This is priority for a vacancy, not immunity from redundancy. See Acas’s explanation.

Returning to your job

The return-to-work test counts the statutory family leave you have actually taken for this child across all blocks, not elapsed time since your first day off. At 26 weeks or less, you normally have the right to your old job. Above 26 weeks, you still have that right unless returning you to it is not reasonably practicable. Only then can your employer offer a suitable, appropriate alternative on no less favourable terms.

Unpaid parental leave is excluded from that total, but taking more than four weeks of it in a consecutive sequence ending in SPL can alter the return right. A sequence including additional maternity or adoption leave can do so too. Check mixed leave arrangements before relying on the 26-week rule.

If a parent or child dies

If a parent dies, the survivor may take unused SPL and pay, including weeks the other parent planned to use, subject to the special eligibility and notice rules. Bereaved partner’s paternity leave is a separate unpaid right for eligible employees in Great Britain where the mother, main adopter or main intended parent dies on or after 6 April 2026. It runs no later than the child’s first birthday or the first anniversary of placement, rather than giving a fresh 52 weeks from the death.

If the child dies, parents can still take SPL already booked, but cannot book new blocks. They may also qualify for parental bereavement leave and pay. Acas explains the SPL death provisions.

What changed in 2026, and what has not

1. 5 Apr 2015SPL becomes available

   The scheme applies to babies due, or children placed for adoption, from this date. The regulations themselves commenced earlier, in December 2014.

2. 6 Apr 2024Redundancy protection extends beyond leave

   At least six consecutive weeks of SPL can give priority for suitable alternative vacancies until 18 months after birth or placement.

3. 6 Apr 2025Neonatal care leave starts

   For babies born from this date, qualifying neonatal care starting within 28 days of birth can give up to 12 extra weeks’ leave, one week for every seven full, continuous days of care. It is additional to SPL. Pay has separate eligibility conditions.

4. 6 Apr 2026Paternity leave can follow SPL

   Paternity leave and unpaid parental leave become day-one rights. Paternity leave and pay can follow SPL. Bereaved partner’s paternity leave also becomes available for qualifying deaths from this date.

5. 1 Oct 2026SPL remains under review

   The 26-week continuity test, curtailment model and 50-week and 37-week pools have not changed. The parental leave and pay review launched in July 2025 with an expected duration of 18 months. That is a review timetable, not a commencement date for new SPL rights.

Questions people ask

Can both parents be off at the same time?

Yes. One parent can take SPL while the mother or primary adopter is still on maternity or adoption leave, once binding notice to end that leave has been given. Or you can both take SPL. Each parent’s weeks come out of the shared pool, so two parents taking four weeks of SPL together use eight weeks.

Can your partner get SPL if you are unemployed?

Being unemployed now does not automatically rule it out. For a birth, your work history must meet the 26-in-66-weeks test and the £390 earnings test. If you are the mother, you must also have maternity leave, statutory maternity pay or Maternity Allowance to end early. A partner with no qualifying work history cannot meet the test.

How is 90% of earnings calculated?

Use the average weekly earnings payroll calculates for your qualifying reference period, not your take-home pay. Multiply by 0.9 and compare the result with £194.32. ShPP is the lower amount. Earnings must first meet the applicable lower earnings limit. Ask payroll for its calculation if your hours or pay varied.

Do SPLIT days have to be full working days?

No, but any work on a day counts as one of your 20 days, even a short training session. Agree the pay in advance; it must meet minimum-wage rules for the work done. SPLIT days are voluntary and do not create extra weeks of leave.

What if the baby arrives early?

The qualifying week is normally tied to the due week, not the actual birth date. Special rules protect continuity eligibility for very early births and relax some notice requirements. You can also give notice to move booked leave so it starts the same interval after the actual birth. Tell your employer as soon as reasonably practicable and check the early-birth rules before changing dates.

What if we separate during SPL?

Separation alone does not end SPL if you still meet the care and eligibility conditions. If you stop caring for the child, tell your employer immediately. You may have to return, but if cover is already arranged your employer can sometimes keep you on planned leave until it can reasonably accommodate your return. That cannot run beyond the original end date or eight weeks after you notify them, whichever comes first.

Sources

1. Shared parental leave and pay, GOV.UK
2. Eligibility for birth parents, GOV.UK
3. Eligibility for adopters and parents using a surrogate, GOV.UK
4. Starting leave and revoking curtailment, GOV.UK
5. Applying, notice and evidence, GOV.UK
6. Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027, HMRC
7. Shared parental leave and pay, Acas
8. Planning and booking leave, Acas
9. SPLIT days and rights during leave, Acas
10. Redundancy protection for pregnancy and new parents, Acas
11. Shared parental leave if someone dies, Acas
12. Shared parental leave and pay in Northern Ireland, nidirect
13. Shared Parental Leave Regulations 2014, especially regulations 6, 14, 16, 17, 35, 36 and 40, legislation.gov.uk
14. Statutory Shared Parental Pay (General) Regulations 2014, legislation.gov.uk
15. Maternity Leave, Adoption Leave and Shared Parental Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024, legislation.gov.uk
16. Employment Rights Act 2025, section 17, legislation.gov.uk
17. Employment Rights Act 2025 commencement, sections 15 to 17, legislation.gov.uk
18. Bereaved partner’s paternity leave: eligibility, GOV.UK
19. Neonatal care pay and leave, GOV.UK
20. Parental leave and pay review: terms of reference, GOV.UK
21. Shared Parental Leave evaluation, Department for Business and Trade
22. Tribunals statistics quarterly: April to June 2026, Ministry of Justice
23. Pay and work rights complaints: report a problem, GOV.UK