No holidays left for introductions

[RosieandJim89]

DH only gets 28 days leave and has already had to take 14 days relating to the adoption and has also taken 8 days for holidays and 2 for himself. He now only has 4 days left and 2 will be used for panel and one for appointments with childs SW etc. That leaves only one day for introductions and he has his 2 weeks paternity. They also have a policy that means that you can only take 2 weeks off at a time so essentially he will have intros off work and then one week when the child arrives. Has anyone else had this? I anticipate the social workers will not be too pleased!

Am sure you have looked at whether he has the option of unpaid paternal leave? Our company do and it is the same for adopted or birth children

You can do shared parental leave so his time with LO when they move in can be extended but will reduce your time for leave. Check the .gov website. Alternatively sitting with management and explaining the situation they may allow him to work out of hours to make up loss or use next years holidays in lieu. You also get 12 hours adoption related absence as standard so this can be one day etc. I'm sure other users here will have more info, I'm currently on a bus so can't do a search .

Please have a look at this government document:
www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/419080/bis-15-259-changes-to-adoption-leave-and-pay-from-5-april-2015-technical-guidance-for-employers.pdf
You'll see on page 9 that he should have been entitled for time off of up to 5 appointments (6.5 hours each) inbetween the time of being notified of a match and up to the child being placed.
This is still a little vague, but after meetings with my HR department we interpreted it as the time we were linked, and up to placement. So in your case, as leave has already been used for much of the extra appointments you would have had, the 5 days (in effect) can be used as part of intros as it's before placement.

I'm so glad adopters now get the equivalent of time off for antenatal appointments. I remember how much of my annual leave went onto it, which felt hugely unfair on the child I already had.

The amount of additional time off that mrsm mentions depends on whether you are taking adoption leave from work too.

The person taking the most significant proportion of adoption leave (for the purposes of this conversation the 'primary adopter') is entitled to leave for up to 5 additional appointments, as mrsm mentioned. Their partner is entitled to time off for up to 2 additional appointments.

I'm assuming you are taking the most leave from work (the equivalent of maternity) and are therefore the 'primary adopter', since you mention your husband's two weeks paternity leave and no more? If that's the case, you can have that paid time off for up to 5 appointments, and he can have paid time off for 2 - this could be the first two days of intros.

If you are not working at all and therefore taking no leave, your husband is entitled to all the benefits of a 'primary adopter' (six weeks @ 90% pay, additional time at statutory etc) rather than just the two weeks paternity.

Thanks all. We are hoping for me to do the first 6 months and DH the last but currently, he is still in his probation period and work and until he gets a permanent contract we cannot risk him trying to take the leave. They have been very unaccomodating and are generally quite unpleasant so we don't want to risk them getting rid of him. For the same reasons, we know they won't let him take holidays from next year to cover it. With those days for appointments for matching i suppose as suggested they could be put towards intro's in order for him to have a couple of extra days but we would have to see if they will ignore the 2 week holiday rule, it is after all very different to a holiday but considering how they have behaved so far DH is pretty sure they won't budge.

To give you an idea of how "supportive" they are, DH nearly got a disciplinary after prep group because they said someone important was visiting the workplace that day and his leave should not have been authorized. They also keep telling him how lucky he was to be able to have --his annual leave- time off to go to appointment. Really? How generous of you!

Maybe try and ask for appointments to be first thing or early evening. We had most of our SW appointments at half 5 and just left work early and made the time up over lunches or other days

They wouldn't do that for us because we are over an hour away so it would mean the sw wouldn't get home until after 7/8pm. Instead we have had several full day appointments on top of the prep courses and then some workshops we had to attend late afternoon but because we live far away we had to leave work at 2ish to get home, meet up and then drive there.
I suppose they should be aware of the fact we have had to do this so may understand?