Courtesy navigation

News

October 17, 2014

Shared Parental Leave will 'benefit employers'

Shared Parental Leave will 'benefit employers'Shared Parental Leave (SPL) – a new legal right that allows couples to share maternity or adoption leave and pay – is to come into effect from 5 April 2015. The government says the new provision will benefit employers as well as working parents.

A new guide from Acas has been published to help prepare employers and employees for the changes. It includes a step-by-step guide on how eligible employees can make an SPL request to their employer and advice for employers on how to deal with SPL requests fairly.

Stewart Gee, Acas head of guidance, said: "We advise employers and employees to start early with discussions to ensure that they can agree the sort of arrangements which work best for business and working families."

According to estimates from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), around 285,000 working couples will be eligible to share their leave from April.

Employment relations minister Jo Swinson said: "As the minister responsible for modernising our working culture, I'm delighted that we're introducing Shared Parental Leave from next April which will let couples choose how to share time away from work to care for their new baby in a way that suits them best. Dads have a key role to play in the early weeks and months of a baby's life and it is right that the arrangements for parental leave should reflect that.”

Swinson welcomed the new Acas guide, and said: “Shared Parental Leave is not only good news for parents-to-be, but for employers who will benefit from having a workforce that is more flexible and motivated.”

Under the new system, a pregnant woman will continue to have access to 52 weeks of maternity leave and 39 weeks of pay as she does currently, but from 5 April working families will have the opportunity to share this leave.

Sarah Jackson, CEO of Working Families, said: "Shared Parental Leave is a significant opportunity for a new generation of parents and for their employers. It offers employers a way into an early conversation with their working fathers and gives parents the chance to start their family life together, simultaneously on leave.”

A key feature of Shared Parental Leave is that it can be taken in several blocks. Eligible parents will be able to make use of a mixture of weeks of work and leave in the first year of their child's life, returning to work between periods of leave if they wish.

Related resources: