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Parental Leave

Are you entitled to parental leave?

If you have a child aged under five, (or under 18 if your child is disabled), you may have the right to parental leave. To qualify you must be an employee and have at least one year's continuous service where you work.

You must also either be the parent:

named on the child's birth certificate

named on the child's adoption certificate

with legal parental responsibility for a child under five (under 18 if the child is disabled)

If you are separated and you don't live with your children, you have the right to parental leave if you keep formal parental responsibility for the children.

If you are self-employed or a worker (eg agency worker, contractor etc) then you are not entitled to parental leave.

Foster parents do not have rights to parental leave but may be able to request a flexible working pattern.

Your employer could ask for evidence that you are entitled to parental leave. This could be:

your child's birth certificate

papers confirming your child's adoption or the date of placement in adoption cases

the award of disability living allowance for your child

How much parental leave can you take?

Each parent can take a total of up to 13 weeks' parental leave for each of your children up to their fifth birthday.

If your child is adopted, each parent can take a total of up to 13 weeks' parental leave. This can be until the fifth anniversary of their placement with you or until their 18th birthday, whichever comes first.

If your child is disabled (that is, receiving disability allowance) each parent has the right to take up to 18 weeks' parental leave until their 18th birthday.

If you don't qualify for parental leave

Always check your employment contract or staff handbook for your employers own parental leave scheme. Your employer may have extended parental leave to include other workers, for example foster carers, grandparents or employees who have worked there less than a year. 

If you don't qualify for parental leave but need time off to care for your child you could:

take paid holiday

ask your employer for unpaid time off

ask your employer about flexible working

If there's a genuine emergency and you need to take time off at short notice:

your employer may let you take emergency leave

you may have the right to take time off to arrange for care

All employees have a right to take a reasonable amount of unpaid time off to deal with certain emergencies involving people they care for. This is known as time off for dependants, and applies regardless of how long you have been working for your employer or whether you have child or adult care responsibilities.

For more information regarding your parental rights visit www.direct.gov.uk/en/parents/Moneyandworkentitlements/