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From time to time, your employees may have to take time off to look after their children.
Parental leave can benefit your workforce, as it can improve employee wellbeing and morale.
Parental leave should be handled like any other type of leave, so it’s important to follow the legal steps and keep accurate records of requests, entitlements, and time taken. Using a staff holiday and leave management system can help you track parental leave consistently while ensuring your policies align with current employment law. If mistreated or the wrong amount of time off is given, a discrimination claims could be made against you.
In this guide, we’ll explain what parental leave is, how it works, and what steps are needed to keep you in line with the law.
What is Parental Leave?
Parental leave is a legal right for parents to take time off to look after their children. Time off can be taken for children up to the age of 18.
Employees are entitled to 18 weeks’ leave for each child, and ordinarily no more than 4 weeks in any one year for each child. This can be used all at once or spread over a certain time period.
Reasons for Taking Parental Leave
There are many reasons why employees might request parental leave. For example, they could:
Accompany a child during a hospital stay.
Find new schools for a child.
Help child settle into new childcare arrangements.
If your employee needs to take leave, you should consider parental leave cover. This will enable you to be more organised and continue the output of your work.
Cover should be arranged as soon as soon as you know your employee is taking leave.
To stay organised, you should:
Establish if cover can be sourced internally through existing staff.
If work can be distributed throughout your team.
Consider training an employee to take over the role.
Be aware of the employee’s right to return to work.
Who is Eligible for Parental Leave?
Under the Employment Rights Act 2025, parental leave is now a day one right. Meaning any employee, regardless of how long they have worked for company can take up to 18 weeks of unpaird parental leave per child under the age of 18.
Employees must provide up to 21 days' notice to their employer when requesting parental leave. As an employer you can opt to postpone this leave if it would cause undue disruption to your business. However, this must be granted if it concerns the birth or adoption of a child.
What are the Legal Rules on Parental Leave?
Under the Employment Rights Act 1996, the Maternity and Parental Leave etc. Regulations 1999 and subsequent amendments, eligible employees have a statutory right to unpaid parental leave. Since 6 April 2026, unpaid parental leave has been a day-one employment right.
Employees can take up to 18 weeks' unpaid parental leave for each child, up to the child's 18th birthday. Employers can offer more flexible or generous arrangements than the statutory minimum.
Parental leave rights apply regardless of an employee's sexual orientation, provided they meet the relevant eligibility requirements. Employers should clearly explain how employees can request and take parental leave in their workplace policies.
Employees are protected from dismissal or detrimental treatment because they have taken, or sought to take, parental leave.
Is parental leave paid?
Parental leave is usually unpaid. However, you should still refer to what has been agreed in the employee’s contract.
You can also refer to your company’s handbook and leave policies.
Unpaid parental leave is subject to your company and whether the employee might be eligible for payment.
What is Shared Parental Leave?
Shared parental leave allows parents to balance both their work and family life.
Shared parental leave allows two people to take leave instead of one for parental leave.
An employee may be entitled to shared parental leave for a number of reasons. Here are some examples of shared parental leave:
They are expecting a baby.
They are using a surrogate for a baby.
They are adopting a child.
This can be up to 50 weeks and up to 37 weeks paid parental leave.
Ensure parental leave payments are made up to 37 weeks or you could face disciplinary action.
Managing Parental Leave
To class as a parent, your employee must be named on one of the following:
The child’s birth certificate.
The child’s adoption certificate.
On a legal guardianship.
Employees aren’t required to fill out an official parental leave application.
Instead,
employees must give 21 days’ notice unless employer and employee agree otherwise for ordinary parental leave.
The employer may postpone leave for up to 6 months for business reasons (for children aged under 6) or 18 months for children aged 6-18.
Get Advice on Parental Leave with BrightHR
Every employee has the right to ask for parental leave. Mistreating or even dismissing an employee over parental leave could leave you with expensive fines to pay.
BrightHR can help you understand parental leave and prepare you for any unexpected obstacles in your way.
If you need any assistance on parental leave don’t hesitate to get in touch with one of our experts.
Book in a free demo today to see how easy it is. Give us a call on 08007832806
FAQs
Q. QuestionWhat is “ordinary unpaid parental leave”?
Unpaid parental leave is a statutory right for eligible employees to take time off to look after their child’s welfare (for example, settling into new childcare arrangements).
Q. QuestionWho is eligible for Parental leave
Employees qualify if all of these apply:
- they’ve been in the company for more than a year
- they’re named on the child’s birth or adoption certificate or they have or expect to have parental responsibility
- they’re not self-employed or a ‘worker’, for example an agency worker or contractor
- they’re not a foster parent (unless they’ve secured parental responsibility through the courts)
- the child is under 18
Q. QuestionHow much leave can be taken?
According to the GOV.UK entitlements page: each eligible employee can take up to 18 weeks per child unpaid parental leave (until the child’s 18th birthday). The limit on how much parental leave each parent can take in a year is 4 weeks for each child (unless the employer agrees otherwise).
Q. QuestionIs the leave paid?
Statutory ordinary parental leave is unpaid (unless the employer chooses to offer paid leave in their contract).
Q. QuestionWhat notice must be given, and can the employer delay it?
- The employee must give at least 21 days’ notice of their intention to take the leave (unless a different notice period is agreed).
- The employer has the power in certain business-critical situations to postpone the leave, though not to deny it outright — for example, if taking the leave would cause serious disruption.