Shared Parental Leave and Pay
Booking blocks of leave
You can book up to 3 separate blocks of Shared Parental Leave (SPL) instead of taking it all in one go, even if you are not sharing the leave with your partner.
If your partner is also eligible for SPL, you can take up to 3 blocks of leave each. You can take leave at different times or both at the same time.
You can take more than 3 blocks of leave if your employer agrees.
You must tell your employer about your plans for leave when you apply for SPL. You can change these plans later but you must give your employer at least 8 weeks’ notice before you want to begin a block of leave.
You can check when you and your partner can take your leave using the Shared Parental Leave and Pay planning tool.
Splitting blocks of leave
If your employer agrees, you can split blocks into shorter periods of at least a week.
Example
A mother finishes her maternity leave at the end of October and takes the rest of her leave as SPL. She shares it with her partner, who’s also eligible. They each take the whole of November as their first blocks of SPL. The partner then returns to work.
The mother also returns to work in December. She gives her employer notice that she’ll go on leave again in February - this is her second block of SPL. Her employer agrees to a work pattern of 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off during the block.
Shared Parental Leave in touch (SPLIT) days
You and your partner can each work up to 20 days while you’re taking SPL. These are called ‘Shared Parental Leave in touch’ (or SPLIT) days.
These days are in addition to the 10 ‘keeping in touch’ (or KIT) days available to those on maternity or adoption leave.
KIT and SPLIT days are optional - both you and your employer must agree to them.