Adoption leave- quick question!

[CannagesAndKings]

Hi all,
When we adopt, does the introduction stage form part of my leave? My partner will take the actual adoption leave but I will have the 2weeks "paternity" part.

So, would I start my leave and then do introductions for 10 days and then be back at work a few days after they move in?

Or, do you take the introduction part as unpaid/compassionate and then your leave starts as soon as the child is placed? I've read differing things.

Intros formed the first few days of my leave. In order to avoid the scenario below my partner has tacked some holiday on so we have longer together at the start. I hope that helps.

From a purely practical point of view I’d aim to have your partner at home for as long as possible after placement, eg using leave for introductions and adoption leave once they’re home or using adoption leave for intros and annual leave after placement. You’ll need practical and emotional support, and your partner needs time to get to know your children.

My DH reduced his working hours slightly (eg home two afternoons a week), at one point I was relying on them for my sanity.

Financially can you afford for you to take some unpaid leave to lengthen how long you will be home for? When our siblings, 2&3, came home my husband was off for 7 weeks - the first two weeks were paternity leave, the next four weeks were unpaid parental leave and the last was a week of annual leave. We needed every second of that time. It meant we had 10 days of Intros followed by 5 and half weeks of both of us at home tag teaming and giving lots of emotional support.

Every parent is entitled to take up to 4 weeks unpaid parental leave in any one year for up to five years of a child’s life or for the first five years after they are placed for adoption. Employers can not refuse, although they can ask you to delay by up to six months if it does not suit the company. I think form memory though they can not refuse it at a specific time if it is to help the settling of a child placed for adoption.

If you can manage on a reduced salary for a few weeks please consider taking as long as you can with both of you at home. You will need it!

Its your choice. You can start paternity leave up to x amount of time after placement. I agree with Jelly. The longer you have off the better. You both need to be there for intros really and both of you for the first few weeks of placement. How you use your leave to do this is up to you.

Paternity leave policies don't recognise this. Leading us into a whole other discussion about gendered family policies, without even getting into inadequate adoption leave policy.

I am the main caregiver, and was on furlough before placement so I used furlough for introductions and then went onto adoption the day LO came home. My OH used holiday for introductions then paternity leave for two weeks. He added another week of holiday onto that.

As others have said its entirely up to you how you take the leave but I agree that if you can holiday or unpaid leave have as much time off as you can. My employers now offer 6 weeks paid parental/paternity leave which is amazing and I would love other companies to do this too.

We did intros as part of our adoption leave

Thanks all, I work in education so have no option to take annual leave as I'm tied to school holidays. I was going to try to link a placement to a school holiday if at all possible.

Yes, going to save up as much as possible and take at least a week extra off (perhaps two if we can afford it).

Of course you can take time off, even in education, you would if you were pregnant. It may need to be unpaid parental leave, though. Can you do the "shared leave", where your partner gives you some of their leave? Otherwise, you get paternity, plus 4 weeks per year unpaid parental leave.

My DH and I are both in education! As you say annual leave is not an option but you can take unpaid parental leave. My DH’s week of annual leave coincided with half term. If you can get intros coinciding with a holiday it will help but there are not guarantees.

Shared parental leave is an option. Your partner can agree to end his adoption leave early and transfer that number of weeks to you to use at the beginning alongside him. This will only be paid at statutory adoption rate but better than totally unpaid. We did the unpaid at the beginning as I was still on full pay at that point with my adoption leave so we still had one full salary coming in.

I would check the company adoption leave. In my work they give you 5 days as part of your adoption leave as they know you may need days off for training etc then after that the day your child is officially placed I.e the first night they sleepover, that's when adoption leave officially starts. My workplace gives me 6 weeks at 90% pay, 24 weeks at 50% with stat adoption pay. After that nothing but stat adoption pay for the remaining 22 weeks.

@sabzino

I would check the company adoption leave. In my work they give you 5 days as part of your adoption leave as they know you may need days off for training etc then after that the day your child is officially placed I.e the first night they sleepover, that's when adoption leave officially starts. My workplace gives me 6 weeks at 90% pay, 24 weeks at 50% with stat adoption pay. After that nothing but stat adoption pay for the remaining 22 weeks.

Are you sure it's statutory for the remaining 22? I don't get paid for the last 3 months (and statutory doesn't normally cover the last 3 months either)

I get this:
Weeks 1-26* Your weekly base pay will be paid in full
Weeks 27-39 Will be paid at the weekly statutory maternity rate
Week 40-52 Will be unpaid in line with statutory provisions

Statutory only pays for 40 weeks not 52

@claireb7rg yes, I've re and re read the company policy and spoke to Hr

But as I said it's all workplace dependant.

Work pays 12 weeks 90% then drops to 50% and stat pay is 40 weeks

[quote sabzino]@claireb7rg yes, I've re and re read the company policy and spoke to Hr

But as I said it's all workplace dependant.

Work pays 12 weeks 90% then drops to 50% and stat pay is 40 weeks [/quote]
Blimey that is good! And I thought my policy was

[quote sabzino]@claireb7rg yes, I've re and re read the company policy and spoke to Hr

But as I said it's all workplace dependant.

Work pays 12 weeks 90% then drops to 50% and stat pay is 40 weeks [/quote]
12 weeks or 6? Your first post said 6 weeks

@claireb7rg apologies at times my dyslexia shows when I am using numbers.