Shared Paternity Leave

[Whichoneisit]

Hi all,
Thinking ahead to when DC3 is due.
I am self employed and DH works for a large company in the city and we’re looking to find out more about shared paternity leave.
I will be entitled to SMP only. He seems to be entitled to full pay for somewhere around 26 weeks.
If we were to use shared paternity leave, would I have to return to work if I was self employed in order for him to qualify or could I just sacrifice my SMP?

It may depend on how his policy is written, but I think you should be able to just sacrifice the equivalent period of SMP at the end of your leave. We’ve just had twins and my DH is taking 3m shared parental leave in April; I will still be on mat leave at the same time and I’m just sacrificing 3m of my full pay (we have a generous civil service parental leave policy)

Seems like you'd be able to share the time but it depends on the policies and whether they're allowed in your DH company
www.workingfamilies.org.uk/articles/shared-parental-leave-sharing-leave-with-a-partner-or-splitting-up-leave/

Shared Parental Leave (SPL) is a right for parents which may allow you to:

Share leave with a partner, and/or
Split up periods of leave.

I'm however splitting up i'm doing 1-26 and he's doing 26-52

Thank you both!

I'm in the same situation, don't want to go back to work too soon so I'm using some of this
www.gov.uk/parental-leave/entitlement
You can add it to the end of your leave, though it's unpaid

There's some not quite right advice above about if your is DH is allowed. It's law now so if he and you meet the criteria they can't say no. Only way they could say no is if you and or him don't qualify.
They don't have to pay more than statutory though so there may be extra conditions around his pay. Sounds like a great deal he's getting!

I did 6 months each when it first came out. You will need to curtail your leave so he can take it. Think of it as a year you share between you.

www.gov.uk/shared-parental-leave-and-pay-employer-guide/entitlement

www.maternityaction.org.uk/advice-2/mums-dads-scenarios/shared-parental-leave-and-pay/