Member Article

Shared Parental Leave - Four simple steps for employers

Shared Parental Leave (SPL) legislation came into effect on 1 December 2014, and applies to children born or matched for/placed into adoption from 5 April 2015.

It is designed to give new and adopting parents greater flexibility to share care between each other and replaces the current Additional Paternity Leave provisions.

The legislation enables new and adopting parents to share time off work after a new baby is born or an adopted child is placed with parents.

4 steps you need to follow as an employer

1. Read the SPL Technical Guide issued by the Department for Business Innovation & Skills: http://bit.ly/GovSPLguide
2. Draft a SPL policy and at the same time, remove all Additional Paternity Leave policies from your Employee Handbook - the policy doesn’t need to be long or complicated and should contain information on SPL, such as what it entails, the entitlements under the legislation, the qualifying period and what your employees need to do in order to request the leave
3. If the draft was not written by an internal or external Employment Law or HR professional, get it checked by such a professional
4. Inform your employees of the draft policy, allow a short period of time for any comments, then implement the company in your organisation

Remember, SPL legislation applies to all children born or matched for/placed into adoption from Easter Sunday, so if you haven’t taken action yet, you need to ensure you do so swiftly.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Taylor Bracewell LLP .