How to deal with a Paternity Leave Request

Ordinary Paternity Leave is available to employees’ whose partner (including in same sex couples) gives birth to a child or who is the biological father or either adoptive parent of a child. Managers should follow set procedures to ensure that employees receive their entitlements in relation to paternity leave and pay.

Notify

•Employees must inform the council of their intention to take OPL by the end of the qualifying week and should indicate when the baby is due, whether they wish to take one or two weeks leave and when they want the leave to start.

•In the case of an adopted child, the employee must give notice of their intention to take OPL no later than 7 days after the date on whcih notication of the match with the child was given by the adoption agency.

Confirm

•Confirm the arrangements for OPL including agreed dates and whether the employee is entitled to Ordinary Statutory Paternity Pay (OSPP).

•An expectant father or partner of a pregnant woman is entitled to take unpaid time off work to accompany the woman to up to 2 of her ante-natal appointments. The time off is capped at 6.4 hours per appointment.

Consider

•In addition to OPL the employee may consider taking Shared Parental Leave.

•The birth mother or primary adopter is entitled to curtail their maternity / adoption leave and pay and instead take Shared Parental Leave and pay in conjunction with the childs father, spouse, partner or partner of the child's mother/adopter certain to meeting eligibility criteria.

•For more information please refer to How to Deal with a Request for Shared Parental Leave

Entitlement

Ordinary Paternity Leave (OPL) amounts to 2 weeks leave which can be taken in a single block of one or two weeks within 8 weeks of the birth or adoption of a child. To qualify for Ordinary Paternity Leave, employees require at least 26 weeks service by the end of the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth or ending with the week in which they were first notified of being matched with the child. Employees may also be entitled to Ordinary Statutory Paternity Pay providing they meet the qualifying criteria.

Returning from paternity leave

Employees returning from paternity leave are entitled to return to the same job as before commencing paternity leave on the same terms and conditions as if they had not been absent. Whilst on paternity leave, employees should not be left out of any pay award that they would ordinarily have been entitled to.

This document was commissioned by the National Association of Local Councils (NALC) in 2019 for the purpose of its member councils and county associations.

Every effort has been made to ensure that the contents of this document are correct at time of publication. NALC cannot accept responsibility for errors, omissions and changes to information subsequent to publication.

This document has been written by the HR Services Partnership – a company that provides HR advice and guidance to local (town and parish) councils. For more information about their services, contact them on 01403 240 205.

© NALC 2019