Shared paternity leave

[Scrivbeth]

Hi, could anyone please confirm how shared paternity leave works? I work for the NHS, I get 12 months maternity leave but only 9 months of that will be paid. I want to return to work at 9 months and my husband take the last 3 months of the leave. Would it work that I would get paid for the 3 months and my husband wouldn’t? We want to do shared leave as I earn more than him and so if we only have 1 salary it makes sense for it to be mine. Thanks

I think it will be his employers' shared parental leave policy that is relevant rather than yours - you would get the payment of your company for the first 9 months, the his company's would kick in for the last 3 months and you would be back on your salary.
A friend and her husband managed to get 6 months full pay each from their employers...

It depends on your employers.

You would be signing over three months to your DH. You'd have already used up all the statutory paid bit, so if your DH's employer only offers statutory it'd be unpaid.

Your DH's employer may enhance the package (although I'd guess that's rare enough for the last three months) but that'd be up to them and nothing to do with what your employer has paid you or would've paid you if you were off.

It's 'shared parental leave' rather than shared paternity leave. Your DH would need to check with his employer but the most likely scenario is that he would take those three months unpaid (even the most generous employers don't usually offer payment for those final three months).

We are looking at doing this for our second baby, me 9 months & my partner the final 3. We work for the same company which is probably less complicated. Our policy is that he basically takes on the end of my maternity. So overall, one parent gets 6 months full pay, 3 statutory & 3 unpaid. He will get the 3 final months unpaid just as I would if I took the full year.

I’d imagine this would be the case for most workplaces but worth checking if any enhancements are offered!