Paternity leave policy

Paternity leave essentially enables eligible employees (usually fathers) to take up to two weeks off work following the birth or adoption of their child. Our policy statement sets out the employee’s statutory rights to paternity leave.

Paternity provisions

The right to paternity leave is available to the biological father or adopter of a child, or to a person who is married to, the civil partner or the cohabiting partner (including same-sex partners) of the child’s mother or adopter. To qualify, the employee must have, or expect to have, responsibility for the child’s upbringing and must have been employed for a minimum of 26 weeks, calculated as at 15 weeks before the baby is expected to be born or as at the week in which the child’s adopter is notified of having been matched with the child. The entitlement is to take a single period of either one or two weeks or two non-consecutive periods of a week each and paternity leave must be taken either within 52 weeks of the date of birth or placement for adoption or, if the child is born early, within 52 weeks of the first day of the expected week of childbirth. During paternity leave, most employees will be entitled to statutory paternity pay (SPP). Our Paternity Leave Policy statement reflects the statutory rights and entitlements. If you want to be more generous in any particular respect, you will need to amend the statement accordingly.