Much has been made of the new Shared Parental Leave (SPL) rights which will be available for parents whose child is either born or placed after 5 April 2015. So what does it mean for employers and parents?

Many readers may be familiar with the current statutory and parental rights. The new SPL will essentially allow mothers and fathers to share leave, though compulsory leave for mothers and fathers will remain at the current two weeks. The qualifying service requirements and length of leave (52 weeks) will remain the same.

So in a nutshell the changes will be:

  1. 1

    Parents adopting children will be entitled to statutory payments

  2. 2

    The new right is more flexible: a mother or primary adopter can either return to work or curtail leave without sacrificing the remainder of their leave

  3. 3

    It will be possible for both parents to take SPL concurrently.

Contact SCE Solicitors for details of our free seminar on the topic on 0113 350 4030 or at info@scesolicitors.co.uk.