Glossary
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Shared Parental Leave (SPL) is a UK scheme that lets parents divide up to 50 weeks of leave and 37 weeks of statutory pay between them in the first year after a birth or adoption. It was introduced in 2015 so that fathers and partners could take real time off.
A decade on, fewer than 2% of new fathers have used it. Understanding why is more useful than memorising the entitlement.
See also Parental Leave
It isn’t extra leave
This is the structural fact behind everything else. SPL creates nothing — it converts.
The mother or primary adopter must first curtail their maternity or adoption leave, and whatever they give up becomes shareable. Take 52 weeks of maternity leave and there is no SPL. End it after 12 and 40 weeks become available.
Every week the second parent takes is a week the first surrendered. That’s the trade-off families weigh, and why the scheme is used far less than its headline suggests. The first two weeks after birth are compulsory maternity leave and can’t be converted at all.
Who qualifies
Both parents must qualify, under two different tests — which catches out employers who check only their own employee.
The parent taking the leave must meet the continuity of employment test: 26 weeks with the same employer by the end of the 15th week before the due date, and still employed a week before each block begins.
The other parent must meet the employment and earnings test: 26 weeks of work in the 66 weeks before the expected birth or adoption match — not necessarily with one employer, and self-employment counts — plus average earnings of at least £30 a week in any 13 of those weeks, roughly £390 in total.
An employee can therefore be personally eligible and still unable to take SPL, because their partner isn’t.
How it works in practice
- Up to 50 weeks of leave and 37 weeks of pay, in whatever proportion the parents choose
- Statutory Shared Parental Pay is £194.32 a week or 90% of average weekly earnings, whichever is lower, from 6 April 2026 — flat rate, with no enhanced opening period. Statutory rates change each April.
- Up to three separate blocks each, with work in between, or one continuous stretch
- Eight weeks’ notice for each booking; parents can be off together or in sequence
- 20 SPLIT days (shared parental leave in touch) each, separate from the 10 KIT days attached to maternity leave
One policy warning: many employers enhance maternity pay well above the statutory rate but pay SPL at the statutory rate only. Where that’s true, switching costs the family real money, and the scheme is priced out before anyone considers it.
Why take-up is so low
The reasons are well documented, and mostly structural rather than cultural.
The money. Statutory pay sits below half the minimum wage for a full-time week. Most households can’t afford it, whatever the policy says.
The zero-sum design. Families are asked to move leave between parents rather than gain any, and many won’t shorten the mother’s.
The complexity. The Women and Equalities Committee has called the system “extremely difficult for most parents and their employers to understand” and asked the government’s parental leave review whether the service and earnings criteria are needed at all.
There’s a current twist. Under the Employment Rights Act 2025, paternity leave and unpaid parental leave became day-one rights on 6 April 2026. Shared Parental Leave did not — it still carries the full two-sided test. The simpler routes got simpler; the complicated one stayed complicated.
Frequently asked questions
How much Shared Parental Leave can you take? Up to 50 weeks of leave and 37 weeks of pay between both parents, in the first year.
Does Shared Parental Leave give extra time off? No. It redistributes leave the mother or primary adopter gives up from their own entitlement.
Can both parents be off at the same time? Yes — together, in sequence, or in alternating blocks, with eight weeks’ notice for each.
Is Shared Parental Leave a day-one right? No. Paternity and unpaid parental leave became day-one rights in April 2026; SPL still requires 26 weeks’ service plus the partner’s test.
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