Parental Leave: What Are the Options?
The statutory leave entitlements (set by law) are:
- Maternity (or adoption) leave – 52 weeks (first 6 weeks paid at 90% of salary; the next 33 weeks paid at a flat rate*)
- Paternity leave – 2 weeks for fathers or partners paid at a flat rate*
- Shared Parental Leave (SPL) – allows both parents to share up to 50 weeks and up to 37 weeks of pay after having a baby or adopting. Paid at a flat rate*. Employees must give at least 8 weeks’ notice to their employer, including how and when they plan to take their leave.
- Unpaid parental leave – up to 18 weeks unpaid per child, until the child turns 18 (4 weeks per year per child)
- *Flat rate = £184.03 per week in 2024–25, or 90% of average pay-whichever is lower. For further details about these policies & eligibility, please see XXX
Some employers go further, offering more time off or enhancing pay. But for many small businesses, enhancing these provisions is not financially viable.
“In a dream world, it would be nice to be able to support new mothers with more finance, to have an extended maternity policy, but it’s just not feasible for us at the moment, and that is probably a drawback of being a smaller business. It is what it is, and we try to be supportive in every other way that we can be.”
Small Business Owner
What else can SME employers do to support new parents who want to take parental leave?
Insights from 160 UK SME employers and employees revealed that simple, low-cost actions help new parents balance work and care and make a big difference for new parents and SME businesses:
- Plan a one-to-one meeting near the baby’s due date to discuss what both the employee and the business need. As things can change before birth, during parental leave, and on the return to work, regular conversations at each stage help everyone stay on the same page.
- Keeping in Touch (KIT) days let an employee on leave come back to work for up to 10 paid days without losing their leave or pay rights. It can help employees keep connected to the workplace.
- Flexibility is key! Allowing employees to adjust their hours, especially when returning to work, is highly valued and often cost-free for the business.
Why is this important to get right?
Our research shows that offering family-friendly policies brings real benefits to organisations because this helps to increase:
- Employee wellbeing
- Staff loyalty and retention
- Employee productivity and engagement
- Morale
- Understanding of an organisation’s commitment to family-friendly policies.
“I’m really glad that we can offer [enhanced leave] and my colleague who [is] going to be off [on paternity leave] – he was really surprised, he was like ‘what, four weeks, that’s amazing!’. So, our staff turnover is really low and that’s probably part of that as well. I think the cost is minimal, the benefit massive.”
Medium-sized Business Owner
