An employee asks to share parental leave, their manager arranges cover, and payroll picks up the payment. Shared parental leave lets eligible parents divide up to 50 weeks of leave and 37 weeks of statutory pay, after maternity or adoption entitlement ends early.
Those decisions depend on different rules when administering shared parental leave. Approving dates doesn’t establish pay entitlement, and recording the absence doesn’t create the shared entitlement.
Start with eligibility and the remaining balance, then put the notices, cover arrangements and payroll instructions together.
Key takeaways
- Parents share one remaining entitlement, rather than receiving 50 weeks of leave and 37 weeks of pay each.
- Employees normally need to give 8 weeks’ written notice. You must accept a qualifying continuous block, but can refuse a discontinuous pattern.
- Leave, statutory pay and contractual enhancements need separate decisions, supported by the same dates and records.
Calculate shared parental leave and pay separately
Work out the remaining leave
Shared parental leave (SPL) becomes available when maternity or adoption leave ends early. Where the parent isn’t entitled to leave, ending maternity pay or Maternity Allowance can release entitlement.
A birth mother must take two weeks’ compulsory maternity leave after birth, or four weeks for factory work. Adoption also allows up to 50 shared weeks, although adopters aren’t required to take two weeks themselves.
These balances assume maternity leave and statutory maternity pay start together.
| Maternity weeks used | SPL remaining | ShPP weeks remaining |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 50 | 37 |
| 22 | 30 | 17 |
| 26 | 26 | 13 |
The remaining leave must fit within the child’s first year after birth or placement.
Keep a separate pay balance
Statutory maternity pay normally lasts 39 weeks, while maternity leave lasts 52. The maximum allowance for Statutory Shared Parental Pay (ShPP) is 37 weeks, less any maternity pay weeks already used. Record the resulting pay balance separately from the SPL balance.
Unpaid maternity leave still reduces available SPL. It doesn’t use a statutory pay week. The government’s employer entitlement guidance explains these separate allowances.
Establish which parent qualifies
Apply the employee’s service test
Each parent taking SPL must be an employee and share responsibility for the child. Workers don’t qualify for SPL itself, although some can qualify for ShPP.
For birth cases, your employee needs 26 weeks’ continuous employment with you by the end of the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth. This is the continuity of employment test. Continuity of employment must also extend through the week before SPL starts.
Find the Sunday starting the expected birth week, then count back 15 weeks. Use the maternity record’s expected date, rather than an estimated leave start.
Adoption uses the matching timetable instead. For surrogacy, check whether the intended parent qualifies for adoption leave and pay, since that statutory route sets the relevant eligibility rules and notices. Zero-hours working doesn’t automatically remove entitlement: establish employee or worker status before making that decision.
Apply the other parent’s work and earnings test
The other parent’s employment and earnings test requires them to have worked during at least 26 of the 66 weeks before the due week. They must also have earned at least £390 across any 13 of those weeks, equivalent to £30 weekly.
Those weeks don’t have to be consecutive. Employment and self-employment can count.
If both parents want SPL, apply the employee test to each. A self-employed mother can’t take SPL or ShPP herself, but can end Maternity Allowance early so her employed partner can qualify. Ending the allowance requires notice to Jobcentre Plus.
Put the correct amount through payroll
Use the ShPP rate, not the maternity calculation
For 2026/27, ShPP is £194.32 weekly or 90% of average weekly earnings, whichever is lower. The recipient normally needs average weekly earnings of at least £129 in the relevant earnings period.
That £129 threshold is separate from the other parent’s employment and earnings test, which has a £390 threshold. Use the relevant earnings record, including qualifying overtime and bonuses, rather than basic salary alone.
Unlike statutory maternity pay, ShPP doesn’t provide six uncapped weeks at 90% of earnings. GOV.UK’s shared parental pay guidance sets out the payment rule.
Calculate the whole arrangement
At £600 average weekly earnings, the first six maternity pay weeks are £540 weekly, totalling £3,240.
If maternity pay ends after 22 weeks, the next 16 weeks at £194.32 add £3,109.12. That leaves 17 ShPP weeks. At the capped rate, those total £3,303.44.
Combined statutory payments are £9,652.56, assuming the rate remains unchanged and the ShPP recipient qualifies for the capped amount. These are gross figures.
Ending maternity pay before its sixth week can reduce household income. ShPP doesn’t carry over the unused uncapped maternity pay weeks.
Give the employee a schedule showing paid weeks, unpaid weeks and any contractual top-up. A calendar month isn’t four weeks.
Collect the notices before arranging cover
Your process needs three connected records. They can arrive together, but each does a different job.
- Obtain the curtailment notice. The mother or primary adopter normally gives at least eight weeks’ notice to end maternity or adoption leave or pay.
- Obtain the entitlement notice and declarations. Record the expected or actual birth date, entitlement already used, remaining balance, proposed split and both parents’ eligibility declarations.
- Obtain the booking notice. Your employee normally gives at least eight weeks’ written notice of the dates they want. Changes usually require eight weeks too.
A curtailment notice is normally a binding notice, not a provisional request. Limited exceptions include discovering within eight weeks that neither parent qualifies, the other parent dying, or withdrawing a notice given before birth within six weeks after birth.
Under the government’s notice and evidence rules, you have 14 days after receiving the entitlement notice to request a birth certificate and the partner’s employer’s name and address.
The employee normally has 14 days to respond. Different timing applies before birth, and a signed birth declaration can replace an unavailable certificate. If the partner has no employer, obtain a declaration stating that.
Keep adoption evidence tied to the matching and placement dates. Record who handles any missing information, rather than leaving payroll to chase it.
Decide which leave patterns you must accept
Each parent normally has three booking notices, which can cover three separate blocks of leave without further agreement. SPL must be taken in whole weeks. Further notices require your agreement.
A continuous block must be accepted when eligibility and notice requirements are met. Staffing pressure doesn’t give you a general right to refuse it.
A request with alternating periods of work and leave is discontinuous. You can agree to it, propose another arrangement, or refuse that pattern.
There is normally a two-week discussion period. If you don’t reach agreement, the employee can withdraw the request or take the requested leave as one continuous block under the statutory procedure.
Refusing the pattern doesn’t remove the underlying entitlement.
Once shared parental leave dates are settled, give the manager and payroll the same schedule. Show maternity curtailment, SPL blocks, paid weeks, return dates and the first-birthday or placement deadline together.
Agree contact without weakening employment protection
Each employee can agree up to 20 Shared Parental Leave in Touch days, known as SPLIT days. These sit alongside the ten separate keeping in touch (KIT) days available during maternity or adoption leave.
Both sides must agree the work and payment. Neither can insist. Part of a working day counts as a full SPLIT day, so record short training sessions too.
Employees mustn’t suffer detriment because they take or plan SPL. Dismissal for that reason is automatically unfair. Acas explains these employee protections.
Keep protected absence out of negative attendance decisions, promotion assessments and redundancy scoring. Managers can create legal risk even where human resources has processed the leave correctly.
Agree reasonable contact, arrange a handover and explain return-to-work arrangements before leave begins. Keep contractual benefits and holiday accrual in the plan, rather than treating SPL as an ordinary unpaid absence.
Frequently asked questions
What changed in April 2026?
From 6 April 2026, employees in Great Britain can take paternity leave and pay after SPL. Paternity leave also became a day-one right, but statutory pay retains qualifying conditions.
The 2026 paternity and parental leave changes didn’t remove SPL’s service requirement. Unpaid Parental Leave is a separate entitlement. Parental Leave has its own eligibility and notice rules. Northern Ireland has separate employment legislation.
Can both parents take paid leave together?
Yes, if both qualify and have available entitlement. They can overlap SPL and ShPP, but each parent’s week uses one week from the shared balance.
A partner can also start SPL while the mother remains on maternity leave, once the required binding curtailment notice has been given. Overlap provides time together but uses the balance faster.
Must enhanced maternity pay be matched?
Enhanced maternity pay doesn’t automatically require identical enhanced shared parental pay. Your policy should explain whether enhanced shared parental pay is offered, subject to discrimination law.
Explain any return-to-work and repayment conditions before leave starts. Conditions and repayment terms must relate to the contractual enhancement, not statutory pay. Record statutory payments and top-ups separately so payroll doesn’t recover the wrong amount.
Keep the entitlement, dates and decisions together
A workable SPL process starts with separate leave and pay calculations, then connects them through one documented schedule. That gives managers a cover plan, payroll a payment record and employees clear dates.
We’re employment law specialists, and our employment protection solution was created by award-winning lawyers. It combines human resources consultancy, software, learning and insurance-backed tribunal cover up to £250,000, subject to policy terms and following our advice.
Book an intro call to discuss keeping your parental leave advice, records and decisions together before an unclear arrangement becomes an avoidable dispute.