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Parental leave policy

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Parental policy bundle:
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Use this if you require a robust and practical parental leave policy.

Reading time
How long to understand and implement this policy?
5 mins
Word count
How many words in this policy?
222
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What is a Parental leave policy?

The purpose of this Parental leave policy is to provide you with a flexible and customisable document to serve as a robust and effective starting point for you.

By using our Parental leave policy, you can streamline your process, maintain consistency and accuracy, and save time, and it can be easily adapted to fit your specific scenario.

Best practice timescale for this to be issued
When should this policy be issued?
During onboarding / after changes / planned refresher
Issued by who, to whom
Who should issue this policy, and to whom?
Internally issued to appropriate recipients in your Company
Applicable legal jurisdictions
In which jurisdictions can this policy be used?
Great Britain & NI (United Kingdom), Worldwide

Parental leave Policy

Overview

The purpose of this policy is to detail the rules and eligibility concerning Parental Leave.

Scope

This policy is applicable to all employees of [company name].

General principles

An employee who has or expects to have responsibility for a child is entitled to take Parental Leave to care for that child. 

Parental leave is unpaid. You’re entitled to 18 weeks’ leave for each child and adopted child, up to their 18th birthday.

You will qualify if all of these apply:

  • you've been in the company for more than a year
  • you're named on the child's birth or adoption certificate or you or expect to have parental responsibility
  • you're not self-employed or a 'worker', eg an agency worker or contractor
  • you're not a foster parent (unless you've secured parental responsibility through the courts)
  • the child is under 18

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).

You must take parental leave as whole weeks (eg 1 week or 2 weeks) rather than individual days, unless your employer agrees otherwise or if your child is disabled. You don’t have to take all the leave at once.

You must give your line manager at least 21 days notice of your intention to take Parental Leave.

This policy [does not] form[s] part of your terms and conditions of employment.

Version: [1.0]

Issue date: [date]

Author: [name, job title]

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£ 9

Get much more with our
Parental policy bundle:
£25
Parental leave policy
parental leave policy