Adoption Leave UK: Entitlement, Pay & Employer Guide (2026)

Adoption leave mirrors maternity leave in many respects, but it has its own rules, timelines, and eligibility criteria that employers must understand. Whether your employee is adopting through an agency, fostering to adopt, or becoming a parent through surrogacy, this guide covers the full picture for UK employers.

Who qualifies for adoption leave?

Statutory adoption leave is available to an employee who has been matched with a child for adoption through a UK adoption agency. The key eligibility rules are:

• The employee must be newly matched with a child through an approved UK or overseas adoption agency.
• Only one member of a couple can take adoption leave. If both partners are employed, they must choose who takes adoption leave — the other partner may be eligible for paternity leave or shared parental leave instead.
• Adoption leave is a day-one right — there is no minimum length of service required to take the leave itself (though there is a qualifying period for pay, covered below).
• The right does not apply to step-parent adoptions, where a person adopts their partner's child.

How long is adoption leave?

Eligible employees are entitled to up to 52 weeks of adoption leave, structured identically to maternity leave:

• Ordinary Adoption Leave (OAL) — the first 26 weeks.
• Additional Adoption Leave (AAL) — the following 26 weeks, which begins immediately after OAL ends.

Adoption leave can start on the date of placement (when the child begins living with the adopter) or up to 14 days before the expected date of placement. The employee chooses the start date and must notify the employer in advance.

Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP)

Statutory Adoption Pay follows the same structure and rates as Statutory Maternity Pay:

The £184.03 rate is the 2025/26 figure. SAP is reviewed each April. As with SMP, most employers can reclaim 92% of SAP from HMRC (or 103% if eligible for Small Employers' Relief).

SAP eligibility

To qualify for Statutory Adoption Pay, the employee must meet both conditions:

• 26 weeks' continuous service with the employer by the end of the week they are matched with the child (the "matching week").
• Average weekly earnings of at least £123 (the Lower Earnings Limit) in the 8-week relevant period before the matching week.

If the employee does not qualify for SAP, the employer must provide an SAP1 form explaining why, so the employee can explore alternative support.

Notification requirements

The employee must notify the employer of their intention to take adoption leave within 7 days of being matched with a child (or as soon as reasonably practicable). The notification must include:

• The date the child is expected to be placed with them.
• The date they want adoption leave to start.

The employer can request a matching certificate from the adoption agency as evidence. Within 28 days of the employee's notification, the employer must respond in writing confirming the expected end date of the adoption leave.

The employee can change their start date by giving 28 days' notice of the new date.

Time off for adoption appointments

Before the child is placed, employees have a statutory right to time off to attend adoption appointments:

• Primary adopter: entitled to time off for up to 5 adoption appointments. This time off is paid.
• Secondary adopter (partner): entitled to time off for up to 2 adoption appointments. This time off is unpaid.

Each appointment can last up to 6.5 hours (including travel and waiting time). The employer can ask for evidence of the appointment, such as a letter from the adoption agency.

Fostering to adopt

In "fostering to adopt" arrangements (also called "early permanence placements"), a child is placed with approved foster carers who are also approved adopters. The child lives with the family as foster carers initially, and adoption follows later if appropriate.

Employees in fostering-to-adopt arrangements are entitled to the same adoption leave and pay as those in standard adoptions. The leave can start from the date the child is placed with the employee as a foster carer, not from the later date when the adoption order is made.

This is an important distinction — employers should not require employees to wait until the adoption is formally confirmed before allowing leave to begin.

Surrogacy and parental orders

Since 2015, intended parents in a surrogacy arrangement who meet the conditions for a parental order are eligible for adoption leave and pay. The intended parent who will take adoption leave must:

• Have applied or intend to apply for a parental order under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008.
• Expect the parental order to be granted.

The other intended parent may be eligible for paternity leave or shared parental leave. This is an evolving area of law, and employers should take care to treat surrogacy arrangements with the same respect and support as other routes to parenthood.

Keeping in Touch (KIT) days

During adoption leave, the employee can work up to 10 Keeping in Touch (KIT) days without ending their adoption leave. As with maternity leave KIT days:

• They are entirely voluntary — neither side can insist.
• Any work on a day counts as one KIT day, even if it is only a few hours.
• Payment must be agreed between the employer and employee. At minimum, the employee is entitled to national minimum wage for hours worked.
• SAP is not affected — KIT day pay is additional to any SAP received for that week.

KIT days are useful for training, team updates, handover planning, or easing back into work before the formal return date.

Employee rights during adoption leave

Employees on adoption leave have the same protections as those on maternity leave:

• Annual leave continues to accrue throughout all 52 weeks of adoption leave, including bank holidays.
• Pension contributions must continue during any paid period of adoption leave.
• Right to return (first 26 weeks) — the employee has the right to return to the same job on the same terms.
• Right to return (after 26 weeks) — the employee can return to the same job or, if not reasonably practicable, a suitable alternative on terms no less favourable.
• Protection from detriment and dismissal — dismissing or subjecting an employee to detriment because they took adoption leave is automatically unfair.
• Redundancy priority — if a genuine redundancy arises during adoption leave, the employee must be offered any suitable alternative vacancy ahead of other employees.

How Leavely tracks adoption leave

Adoption leave involves overlapping dates, pay periods, KIT days, and accruing annual leave — just like maternity leave. Leavely makes it straightforward to manage:

• Adoption leave tracking — record the full adoption leave period with clear start and expected return dates visible on the team calendar.
• KIT day logging — track each KIT day used out of the 10-day allowance, so nothing is missed or exceeded.
• Automatic holiday accrual — Leavely continues to accrue annual leave during adoption leave, so the balance is accurate when the employee returns.
• Return date visibility — managers can see upcoming return dates and plan cover or handover accordingly.
• Policy configuration — set up your adoption leave policy (including any enhanced pay) once, and Leavely applies it consistently across all cases.
• Shared parental leave integration — if the employee opts into shared parental leave, Leavely tracks the transition seamlessly.