Shared Parental Leave in Detail

To be eligible for SPL, both parents must meet their own eligibility criteria:

The parent wishing to take SPL must:

• Be an employee
• Have worked for the same employer for at least 26 weeks by the end of the 15th week before the due date (or matching date for adoption)
• Remain employed by that employer during the SPL period

Their partner (or the other parent) must:

• Have worked for an employer (or be self-employed) for at least 26 of the 66 weeks before the baby is due
• Earn above the lower earnings limit (currently £123 per week) in at least 13 of those 66 weeks

The mother or primary adopter must also have curtailed (ended early) their maternity or adoption leave in order to create the weeks that can then be shared.

To take SPL, the following steps are required:

1. The mother or primary adopter curtails their maternity or adoption leave by giving a Curtailment Notice to their employer, specifying the date leave will end.
2. Both parents give SPL notices to their respective employers, stating they meet the eligibility criteria.
3. Each parent who wants to take leave gives a Booking Notice specifying the dates and number of weeks they wish to take, at least eight weeks before the leave is due to start.

Leave can be taken in up to three separate blocks — and with the employer's agreement can be taken as discontinuous (non-continuous) periods. Employers must agree to discontinuous leave requests or offer an alternative continuous block. If no agreement is reached, the employee is entitled to take the leave as a continuous block on the dates originally requested.

Shared Parental Pay (ShPP) is paid at the same flat rate as Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) for the weeks in which it is claimed — currently £194.32 per week (2025/26) or 90% of average weekly earnings if lower. Employers can offer enhanced ShPP on top of the statutory rate, though they are not required to do so.

The number of weeks of ShPP available depends on how many weeks of Statutory Maternity Pay or Maternity Allowance the mother or primary adopter has already used before curtailment. If the mother takes 20 weeks of SMP before curtailing, there are up to 17 weeks of ShPP remaining to share (37 minus 20).

Many employers offer enhanced maternity pay but not enhanced ShPP — this has been the subject of equal pay and sex discrimination challenges. Following the Court of Appeal decision in Ali v Capita Managed IT Solutions, employers are not automatically required to equalise enhanced maternity and shared parental pay, but the law in this area continues to develop.