Adoption leave

What adoption leave and pay you're entitled to and how to plan your leave and return to work.

Adoption leave

You can take up to 52 weeks' adoption leave, if you're:

  • adopting a child
  • fostering a child permanently and becoming their legal parent
  • having a child through surrogacy and become their legal parent within 6 months of the child’s birth

The earliest that you can start adoption leave is:

  • UK adoptions: up to 14 days before the date the child is placed with the employee
  • Overseas adoptions: when the child arrives in the UK or within 28 days of this date
  • Surrogacy arrangements: the day the child is born or the day after they are born
  • Fostering to adopt: the day the child is placed with the employee

If you're in a couple, only one of you can take adoption leave, the other partner might be able to get paternity leave and pay.

You could consider taking shared parental leave and pay.

You can find out more about your entitlement in our family friendly leave and pay guide.

Annual leave during adoption leave

While on adoption leave, you’ll build up annual leave as normal. You can choose to use it at the end of your adoption leave to extend your time off or use it at another time. 

See the carrying over annual leave page to find out how to calculate your carry over entitlement.