Shared parental leave

You can share up to 50 weeks of SPL and up to 37 weeks of ShPP between you and your partner. The first 2 weeks of maternity and adoption leave are compulsory for the person who has given birth or is the main adopter.   

To take SPL, the person who has given birth or the main adopter must end their maternity or adoption leave early by completing the curtailment notice form (DOC, 57KB).

Once completed, upload it to the Assyst portal at least 8 weeks before the change to SPL.   

How you can use your SPL 

You and your partner can choose to be off work together or at different times.  

You can take leave all in one go or split it into blocks (for example, you can work for one month, then use one month of SPL).   

Remember that the SPL entitlement is shared rather than per person. For example, if you both take 2 weeks off at the same time, you’ll use 4 weeks of your overall allowance.

Examples of how you could split leave 

• both parents could take between 1 week to 6 months’ leave at the same time  
• one parent could stay on leave, or you could stagger leave and pay so that one parent is always at home with the child in the first year