Period of leave notice for shared parental leave

An employee must give not less than eight weeks’ written notice of each block of shared parental leave (SPL) they intend to take by submitting a period of leave notice for shared parental leave.

Notice requirements

An employee must give you not less than eight weeks’ written notice of each block of SPL they intend to take. This is called a Period of Leave Notice for Shared Parental Leave and it’s a separate notice to the Notice of Entitlement to SPL. It simply specifies the start and end dates for each period of SPL that the employee wishes to take. If the notice is given before the child is born or placed for adoption, it can contain start and end dates expressed as a number of days following the child’s birth or adoption placement date, rather than specific dates. It can run concurrently with the notice of entitlement and therefore can be given at the same time, but it doesn’t have to be.

Continuous or discontinuous

A period of leave notice can provide notice of more than one period of SPL. This is because SPL may be taken as one single, continuous period or in separate, discontinuous blocks interspersed with time back at work. Our notice asks the employee to specify the start and end dates for one period of SPL but then contains optional boxes to be completed if they’re requesting more than one period of SPL in their notice. We’ve allowed for the notice to specify up to five discontinuous periods of SPL, but there is no limit to the number of periods that can be requested.

Length of SPL

The earliest that SPL may be taken in relation to birth is the date of the child’s birth and in relation to adoption is the date of the child’s placement for adoption. SPL must end by the day before the child’s first birthday, or by the day before the first anniversary of the child’s placement for adoption. The minimum period of SPL is one week and it must be taken in multiples of complete weeks. Our notice contains useful guidance notes setting out the relevant rules.

Statutory cap

There is a cap of three period of leave notices that can be submitted by an employee, unless you agree that a particular notice won’t count towards the cap.

Variation notice

Employees can change their minds about how much SPL they want to take, or the dates on which they wish to start or end a period of SPL, or they can cancel a period of SPL altogether, by giving you eight weeks’ written notice of any variation before the proposed new start or end date or eight weeks’ written notice before the original start or end date, whichever is sooner. The process for giving a variation notice changing SPL patterns is the same as the process for booking leave with a period of leave notice. Importantly, notices to vary SPL will still count towards the cap of three period of leave notices that are permitted. Once three period of leave notices have been given, whether to take SPL or to vary SPL, no further SPL requests or variations will be possible, unless you agree otherwise.