Shared parental leave and pay: sharing the balance

Shared Parental Leave lets you and your partner split a large chunk of leave and pay between you, instead of it all sitting with one parent. In practice it’s one of the most underused rights in this area, worth knowing why before you decide whether it’s right for you.

How much leave and pay you can share

Up to 50 weeks of Shared Parental Leave (SPL) and up to 37 weeks of Shared Parental Pay (ShPP)Statutory pay available for up to 37 weeks once a parent curtails their maternity or adoption pay early, allowing the remaining weeks of pay to be shared between both parents rather than staying with ... become available once the mother or adopter ends, or “curtails”, their maternity or adoption leave and pay early. The 50 weeks and 37 weeks are what’s left over from the standard 52-week leave and 39-week pay entitlements after curtailment, not an extra amount on top.

ShPP is paid at whichever is lower: the government’s flat weekly rate, or 90% of average weekly earningsThe average amount you earn per week, usually calculated over a reference period before your absence started. It's used to work out how much Statutory Sick Pay, maternity pay, or other statutory payme.... From 6 April 2026 that flat rate is £194.32 a week, the same rate as statutory maternity, paternity, and adoption pay.

Who’s eligible, and why this trips people up

Both parents have to separately pass their own eligibility test, and this is the single most confusing part of SPL:

• The parent taking SPL needs 26 weeks’ continuous employment with their employer by the qualifying weekThe reference point used to test eligibility for statutory family pay. For maternity and paternity pay, it's the 15th week before your expected week of childbirth. For adoption pay, it's the week you'..., continuing employment with that employer until the SPL starts, and to still meet the standard employee-status test.
• The other parent (whose employment doesn’t need to be with the same employer, or even to be employment at all) needs to have worked for at least 26 of the 66 weeks before the child’s due date or adoption match, earning above a minimum threshold in at least 13 of those weeks.

Both tests have to pass, not just one. A common mistake is checking only the parent who wants to take the leave and assuming that’s enough.

Giving notice and booking your leave

You need to give at least 8 weeks’ notice before each period of SPL you want to take. You can split your SPL into up to 3 separate blocks by right; anything beyond that needs your employer’s agreement. Since 2026, you can now take SPL before, after, or interspersed with your own paternity leave, rather than being locked into a fixed order (see our paternity leave and pay guide for the ordering rule this replaced).

If you’re treated unfairly for taking or requesting SPL

The same protections against dismissal, selection for redundancyA dismissal that occurs when your employer no longer needs the work you do, either because the business is closing, a workplace is closing, or the requirement for employees to carry out that kind of w..., and other detrimentAny action your employer takes that puts you at a disadvantage, short of dismissal. In a whistleblowing or discrimination context, being moved to a worse role, excluded from meetings, or given an unfa... that apply to maternity and paternity leave apply to Shared Parental Leave too. See our guide on pregnancy and maternity discrimination for the closely related legal tests.

If working out your SPL and ShPP entitlement doesn’t add up after checking all this, you can book a call to talk it through.