Shared parental leave enables you to commit to ending your adoption leave and pay at a future date, and to share the untaken balance of leave and pay as shared parental leave and pay with your partner, or to return to work early from adoption leave and opt in to shared parental leave and pay at a later date.
Shared parental leave must be taken in blocks of at least one week. You can request to take shared parental leave in one continuous block (in which case the Company is required to accept the request as long as you meet the eligibility and notice requirements), or as a number of separate blocks of leave (in which case you need the Company's agreement).
To be able to take shared parental leave, you and your partner must meet various eligibility requirements and have complied with the relevant curtailment, notice and evidence requirements. This includes the adopter curtailing their adoption leave.
You can refer to the Company’s policy on shared parental leave, where you will find full details of the eligibility requirements, as well as instructions as to how the adopter's adoption leave can be curtailed. The Company's policy on shared parental leave sets out the notice periods with which you must comply and what evidence you must provide to the Company.
The adopter and the partner should ensure that they are each liaising with their own employer when making requests for shared parental leave.