Shared Parental Leave UK: How It Works (2026 Guide)

Shared Parental Leave (SPL) and Statutory Shared Parental Pay (ShPP) are available to eligible parents who are having a baby, using a surrogate, adopting a child, or fostering a child they plan to adopt. It is not an extra entitlement on top of maternity or adoption leave. Instead, the mother or primary adopter takes less than the full 52 weeks of maternity or adoption leave and less than the full 39 weeks of statutory pay, and the unused balance becomes a shared pool.

The pool is up to 50 weeks of leave and up to 37 weeks of pay. Those figures are the full 52 weeks of leave and 39 weeks of pay, less the 2 weeks of compulsory maternity leave after the birth, which cannot be shared. A mother who works in a factory must take 4 weeks of compulsory leave. If the person claiming adoption pay is adopting, they must take at least 2 weeks of adoption leave.

The leave and pay must be used in the first year after the child is born or placed with the family. Parents can be off at the same time, stagger their leave, or alternate periods of leave and work. Every week each parent is off uses one week from the pool, so two parents off together for four weeks use eight weeks of leave.

Both parents must share responsibility for the child at birth (or from placement for adopters, or from the due date or birth date where a surrogate is used). Parents who only started sharing responsibility after the birth are not eligible. After that, the tests depend on which parent wants to take the leave and pay.

The parent taking SPL must be an employee, not a worker. They must have been employed continuously by the same employer for at least 26 weeks by the end of the 15th week before the due date, and stay with that employer until at least the week before their SPL starts. A worker may be able to get ShPP but not SPL. To get ShPP, the parent must earn on average at least £129 a week.

The other parent must pass a separate work and pay test: working for at least 26 weeks out of the 66 weeks before the week the baby is due, and earning at least £390 in total across any 13 of those 66 weeks. The weeks do not need to be in a row, and there is no continuous-employment test for the other parent. If both parents want to take SPL, both must meet the employee tests. Eligibility for maternity or paternity leave does not automatically mean eligibility for SPL, and the April 2026 day-one changes to paternity leave and unpaid parental leave did not remove the 26-week test for SPL.

For 2026/27, ShPP is paid at £194.32 a week or 90% of the employee's average weekly earnings, whichever is lower. Unlike Statutory Maternity Pay, there is no period paid at an uncapped 90% of earnings. SMP pays 90% of average earnings with no maximum for the first 6 weeks, so many families plan for the mother to take at least those weeks as maternity pay before switching to ShPP.

The pay pool is whatever remains of the 39 weeks of SMP, Statutory Adoption Pay or Maternity Allowance after the mother or adopter ends it early. GOV.UK gives the example of a mother who has taken 22 weeks of maternity leave and SMP: she can share 30 weeks of SPL and 17 weeks of ShPP with her partner. Because the leave pool is larger than the pay pool, parents can still have unpaid weeks of SPL left after the pay runs out.

Each parent is paid ShPP by their own employer through normal payroll. The employee must tell their employer in writing that they are claiming ShPP, for example in a letter or email. Check whether your organisation offers enhanced shared parental pay and, if it does, how it relates to any enhanced maternity pay, so that the policy is applied consistently.

SPL cannot start until the child has been born or placed. For SPL to start, the mother or adopter must either return to work, which ends maternity or adoption leave, or give their employer binding notice of the date their leave will end. The partner can start SPL while the mother is still on maternity leave, as long as that binding notice has been given. Binding notice and the notice of when the parent plans to take SPL can be given at the same time.

For ShPP, the mother or adopter must give binding notice of when maternity or adoption pay will end. If she gets Maternity Allowance, notice goes to Jobcentre Plus instead. Once maternity pay, adoption pay or Maternity Allowance has ended, it cannot be restarted.

The decision to end maternity or adoption leave early can only be changed if the planned end date has not passed, the person has not already returned to work, and one of these applies: during the 8-week notice period the parents find out neither is eligible; the mother or adopter's partner has died; or the mother tells the employer less than 6 weeks after the birth, having given notice before the birth.

The employee must give at least 8 weeks' written notice of their leave dates. Acas publishes forms and templates for the notice of entitlement, the notice ending maternity or adoption leave and pay, and the booking of leave dates; an employer can use its own forms instead. An employee might not get SPL or ShPP if the notice leaves out required information. Employers should confirm they have received the notice.

Within 14 days of the application, the employer can ask for a copy of the birth certificate (or a declaration of the place and date of birth if it has not been registered yet) and the name and address of the partner's employer, or a declaration that the partner has no employer. For adoption, the employer can ask for the agency details, the matching date and the date the child will start living with the family. The employee must provide the information within 14 days of being asked.

Changes to the planned dates are allowed, but notice of any change must be given at least 8 weeks before the start of the leave. Each parent can give up to 3 notices to book or change leave, and the employer may allow more but does not have to. If an employee withdraws a discontinuous request within 15 days, it does not count towards the 3 notices.

Each parent can book up to 3 separate blocks of SPL, even if they are not sharing leave with a partner, and more than 3 if the employer agrees. Leave must be taken in whole weeks but can start on any day of the week.

A continuous block is one unbroken period of leave, and an employer cannot refuse it if the notice is valid. A discontinuous request asks for separate periods with work in between, such as two weeks on and two weeks off. The employer can refuse a discontinuous pattern if it does not suit the organisation, and should discuss an alternative. If no pattern is agreed within 14 days, the employee can withdraw the request or take the leave as one continuous block.

Agree in writing how each block will be covered, and keep one timeline showing both parents' weeks, the weeks of ShPP each is claiming, and any changes. Where the parents work for different employers, neither employer sees the whole picture, so rely on the employee's notices and declarations to track the combined balance.

Each parent can work up to 20 Shared Parental Leave in touch (SPLIT) days while on SPL without ending their leave. These are in addition to the 10 keeping in touch (KIT) days available during maternity or adoption leave.

SPLIT days are optional: both the employee and the employer must agree to them, and neither side can insist. Pay for SPLIT days should be agreed in advance and must not be less than the National Minimum Wage. They can be used for training, team days or a gradual return, for example two SPLIT days a week before coming back full time. Record each SPLIT day and the agreed pay so the count of 20 is easy to check.

The terms and conditions of the employee's contract still apply during SPL, and the employer still has obligations while the employee is off, including telling them about changes and job opportunities. The same rights and processes on returning to work apply as after maternity leave.

Being on, or planning to take, SPL is never a valid reason for dismissal. A dismissal because of SPL is automatically unfair, there is no minimum length of service to claim, and an employer who dismisses an employee on SPL must give the reasons in writing.

Redundancy protection starts on the day a period of SPL begins. Where an employee takes 6 or more weeks of continuous SPL, the protected period runs to 18 months from the child's birth (with equivalent dates for adoption). Where the leave is shorter or discontinuous, protection ends at the end of each period. During the protected period the employee has priority over other employees for any suitable alternative vacancy.

From 6 April 2026, an employee can take paternity leave after shared parental leave, before they return to work. Paternity Leave and Pay can be taken before or after SPL and ShPP.