Earlier this month, the Statutory Paternity Pay (Amendment) Regulations 2024 were passed. These regulations come into force on 8 March 2024 and will affect paternity leave for fathers or partners who have children due to be born or placed for adoption on or after 6 April 2024.
Our blog discusses how paternity leave works at the moment, and how the paternity leave system will change from 8 March 2024.
How does paternity leave currently work?
Currently, eligible employees have the right to take paternity leave in a single block of one or two weeks within the first eight weeks following the birth of their child or adoption placement. If the employee decides to take only one week, they are not allowed to take the other week on a separate occasion.
Employees are required to give 15 weeks’ notice of their intention to take paternity leave. You can find out more in our Q&A.
What is changing?
The new regulations will apply where the expected week of childbirth or adoption is on or after 6 April 2024. These regulations will:
- allow employed fathers or partners to split their leave and claim their entitlement in non-consecutive blocks;
- allow employed fathers or partners to claim paternity leave at any point during the first year after the birth or adoption of their child, rather than within the first eight weeks, which provides more flexibility and convenience; and
- shorten the notice period required from 15 weeks to 28 days.
From 8 March 2024, your employees will be able to start informing you of the leave dates they intend to take for their child who is due to be born or placed with them for adoption on or after 6 April 2024. It would be a good idea to identify employees who have already given or will give notice of their intent to claim paternity leave and pay, and whose babies have an expected week of birth or an expected date of adoption on or after 6 April 2024.
Dealing with paternity leave
When an employee has notified you that they intend to take paternity leave, you can respond to them by using our template Paternity arrangements letter, which sets out the employee’s entitlements. You must acknowledge their request and confirm the end date of paternity leave within 28 days of receiving their notice. This helps to ensure clarity between you and the employee as to what entitlements they have and explains the rights they have to paternity leave, pay and time off for antenatal appointments.
When employees are on paternity leave, you cannot insist that they continue working during this time. You must not subject them to any detriment for exercising their right to take time off from work. However, it is up to your discretion whether you contact them during their leave. It is recommended that you allow your employees to enjoy their time off uninterrupted and you should contact them only when there is an emergency.
Our Paternity toolkit covers a range of paternity leave situations. It includes a suite of relevant documents and a how-to guide that you can use when your employees seek paternity leave whether their partner is having a baby, they are adopting or they are having a baby via surrogacy. Note that if your employee is taking adoption leave instead, you should use our Adoption and surrogacy toolkit. These toolkits ensure that you are compliant with your legal obligations and help you maintain good workplace relations with your employees.
Flexible working after paternity leave
Employees returning from paternity leave have the right to make a request for flexible working. When you receive a flexible working request, it is your legal duty to consider it carefully and you should be open to the possibility of a flexible working arrangement. You need to make a genuine effort to determine whether you have the capacity to accommodate the request and to see whether a compromise arrangement can be reached. Failure to do so may lead to your employee bringing a legal claim against you for breaching their rights, which may result in a discrimination claim.
This does not mean that you must agree to a flexible working request, but there are many factors you must consider. See Flexible working requests for more details. You can use our Flexible working policy for guidance on generating a template policy setting out how your business deals with flexible working requests, who is eligible to make these requests and how these requests should be made.
The content in this article is up to date at the date of publishing. The information provided is intended only for information purposes, and is not for the purpose of providing legal advice. Sparqa Legal’s Terms of Use apply.
Marion joined Sparqa Legal as a Senior Legal Editor in 2018. She previously worked as a corporate/commercial lawyer for five years at one of New Zealand’s leading law firms, Kensington Swan (now Dentons Kensington Swan), and as an in-house legal consultant for a UK tech company. Marion regularly writes for Sparqa’s blog, contributing across its commercial, IP and health and safety law content.