Paternity leave changes

Employees whose babies were born (or in the case of adoption, placed) after 6 April will be able to take paternity leave at any point in the first year of child-birth or after adoption. Leave can be split up into two separate blocks of one week.

Paternity leave policies will need to be updated to reflect these changes.

The required notice period for each period of leave has also been shortened to 28 days, or four weeks, instead of 15 weeks before the expected week of childbirth.

The new regulations allow employees to take one week’s unpaid leave in a 12-month period to provide or arrange care for a dependant with a long-term care need. This may be taken as individual days or a one week block.

Employees must give the employer notice of any leave requested.

Employers will need to undertake the necessary policy reviews to incorporate this change and to adhere to the regulations that were implemented on 6 April.