The countdown is on to the start of shared parental leave, a new type of leave available for parents of children born or placed for adoption on or after 5 April 2015. Shared parental leave provides parents with an alternative to the classic roster of maternity, paternity and adoption leave.

The process commences when a mother cuts short her maternity or adoption leave in order to return to work. The other parent then goes on shared parental leave to care of the child. Up to 52 weeks’ shared parental leave may be taken – the same duration as maternity leave or adoption leave. Leave can be taken as one single block of leave or as discontinuous blocks, with parents passing care of the baby back and forth between them. An employee is automatically entitled to take shared parental leave as a continuous block, but an employer may reject a request for discontinuous leave.

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The potential headache for employers is the numerous notices and timings which administration of shared parental leave entails. There is also the difficulty of trying to agree two sets of leave arrangements between different employers. It is recommended that employees are encouraged to discuss any plans for shared parental leave as early as possible so that their employers can consider how to accommodate their request.

A number of protections apply to a parent who takes or is thinking of taking shared parental leave. During shared parental leave the employee’s terms and conditions of employment remain unchanged, with the exception of pay. If a redundancy situation arises while the employee is on leave, they should be offered alternative employment ahead of other employees. When leave ends, the employee must return to the same job. If the employee has taken more than 26 weeks’ leave and it is no longer reasonably practicable for them to return to their old job, they must be offered a job that is suitable and appropriate and whose terms and conditions are not less favourable.

Employees have the right not to be dismissed or subjected to detrimental treatment because they have taken or are considering taking shared parental leave. Any such dismissal will be automatically unfair.

If parents opt for shared parental leave, they are entitled to receive up to 39 weeks’ shared parental pay between them. This will be paid at the weekly rate of £139.58.

Employers who offer enhanced maternity pay will need to decide whether they want to offer enhanced shared parental pay as well. The consequences of failing to do so may be a claim for direct or indirect sex discrimination. It is expected that the uptake of shared parental leave will be influenced by whether employers choose to offer enhanced shared parental pay.