Shared parental leave UK - anyone with experience?

[Bubbles1485]

I'm currently 20 weeks pregnant so need to give notice to my employer soon. Me and DH have discussed whether sharing the leave might work best for us - we're thinking of doing it in 2 chunks so I take 5-6 months and then he takes the rest. Am I correct in thinking we don't actually need to tell either of our employers this plan yet? That I just notify mine of my plan for maternity, and then once I'm off we can both give 8 weeks notice of our intention to switch to shared? I checked the gov site and think this is correct but don't want to suddenly find out we can't do this down the line as he never notified his employer on time before the baby is born?

You will need to look at your individual work policies. I would think you have to inform them in advance but I may be wrong! I work in the NHS and it has to be completed as part of my maternity paperwork, which needs to submitted around 25/26 weeks of pregnancy.

I’d check with your HR, just say you’re considering your options. Is there a reason you don’t want to tell them?

I'm sure you need to decide in advance and both of you need to give the correct notice to your respective employers

Check with his workplace. Why not get it all sorted now? The one thing you will have to do is give notice of your return for it to all work now.

We did it a good few years ago now, so caveat that things might have changed.

I took the first 6 months and dh took the next 6. I don't remember having to say anything in particular to my employer, over and above my usual plans for mat leave.

With dh's employer we had to fill in a form to ensure they started claiming SPP for him for the remaining 3 months of SMP I hadn't used. They'd never done it before and were extremely unhelpful. They actually didn't confirm that it had all gone through until 3 days before I was due to start back at work (and they "lost" our paperwork twice ).

I think we had to give them around 8 weeks notice and boy did they need that notice to run the full gamut of incompetence. I really hope things are better now.

www.acas.org.uk/shared-parental-leave-and-pay/taking-shared-parental-leave This gives a bit more info

Your own HR policies are best to look at (as they will need to talk to each other - we did 6 months each and I had to supply my DP’s NI number & employer details to my own HR).

Are you concerned that you’ll want a longer mat leave once the baby is here? Changing the planned time around is possible but like @sleepyhead says, a lot of employers would need a lot of time to make changes, and it depends on your line of work as to whether you could come back more quickly/later than planned, eg if you do rostered shifts or work in an education setting or whatever.

Would hugely recommend it though. DP looked after our son from 7-13 months & loved every minute of it.

In my experience, you have to notify your employer of your plan, but you can change it at 4 weeks notice - not sure what the deal was at his end, but he told them. Generally they're happier for less notice of you coming back and want more if you're going off! Some employers have different length notice periods for leaving the job and leave, however - check your contracts.

You need to give eight weeks notice in advance of any SPL. So you've got until your baby is about 3 months old before you need to have the forms done. The forms are a bit fiddly - you need to serve one to your employer informing them that you are curtailing your maternity leave, and then your partner will have to serve notice to his employer that he will be taking SPL. Have a look at ACAS' website (www.acas.org.uk/shared-parental-leave-and-pay) - they have template notice forms that you can use.

Don't forget to take your accrued annual leave into consideration. One of the annoying things about SPL is that it must be used by the baby's first birthday - this means that if you take 6 months of mat leave, then one month of accrued holiday at the end (which is common on mat leave), your partner will have 6 months of SPL to take, but only 5 months to take it in.

Yes, check both companies HR policies as well as gov advice so you know the deadlines. I’d then wait right up until the deadline before submitting the forms.

I know a couple of people who changed their minds about it later on.

Thanks all, there's no real reason not to say now - only because he's on furlough as work isn't expected to pick up until all current restrictions are lifted so things are all up in the air atm and he'd prefer to discuss it once everything was settled with the company again. Plus if things turn out bad our plans would change anyway if he had to look for a new job.
My company follow the government statutory rules so nothing different on top - whilst they say for paternity 2 weeks and maternity you have to notify 15 weeks before due date, for shared leave it doesn't specifically state that (it just says u can change your mind 6 weeks after baby is born IF u notify them before the baby is born and wanted clarification if that meant it's not essential to tell them before.)

We did it and would highly recommend it. I think you're right about the minimum notice but I wouldn't only give the minimum notice unless you have a particular reason to - it doesn't encourage good will. DH's work were really supportive about it even though he was the first man they'd had who'd taken SPL, but I think they'd have been pretty pissed off if he'd only told them 8 weeks before as they wouldn't have had time to sort out proper cover.

@Bubbles1485 I've had to submit how many weeks I was intending to give up to my husband to my employer before the 25 week deadline, and he had to also tell his. Reason being they need to workout the SMP calculation. We can then go back and revise later on. They also need to work out their own resourcing as well...

It's not just your company's policy you need to consider, you need to check your partners as well. I would definitely speak with both HR teams to avoid any mess ups!