Keeping it in the family – workers’ family-related rights in focus

As more men and women choose to remain in the workplace after starting a family, and as the very definition of family life continues to evolve, it is more crucial than ever that employers’ policies accurately reflect the family rights to which employees are entitled.

The introduction of the new Employment Rights Bill will likely lead to a broadening of these rights but are unlikely to be introduced until Autumn 2026.

This blog should be a helpful recap on existing family-related employment rights, together with an overview of the new neonatal care rights which came into force in April 2025.

Maternity Leave

All employees are entitled to up to 52 weeks’ maternity leave, regardless of their length of service.

The earliest an employee can take maternity leave is 11 weeks before the expected week of childbirth. If the baby is born prematurely, maternity leave will start the day after the baby is born.

Although it is up to the individual whether they wish to take the full 52 weeks’ entitlement or return to work earlier, employees must, by law, take at least 2 weeks’ off immediately following the birth of the baby.

Unless their contract of employment provides otherwise, an employee is not entitled to their normal rate of pay during maternity leave. They may, however, be entitled to statutory maternity pay (SMP) for up to 39 weeks and this pay includes an initial 6 week period when they are generally entitled to 90% of their average weekly earnings.

Employees should, where practicable, give at least 15 weeks’ notice to employers. The notice should confirm their due date and when they wish to start their maternity leave. Employees have the right to change this, provided they give 28 days’ notice. It is the employer’s responsibility to confirm the employee’s maternity leave start and end dates in writing within 28 days of this notice being provided, however it cannot refuse maternity leave or change the amount of leave an employee wishes to take.

For surrogates, the entitlement to maternity leave is the same as if the employee were having their own child.

Paternity Leave

Paternity leave is available to employees with 26 weeks’ service up to any day in the 15^th week before the baby is due.

To qualify for paternity leave, an employee must be taking time off to look after the child and be either the father, the husband or partner of the mother (or adopter), the child’s adopter, or the intended parent if having a baby through a surrogacy arrangement.

An employee who qualifies for paternity leave will be entitled to a maximum of 2 weeks’ leave. The employee can choose to take either 1 or 2 weeks’ leave. The leave must start after the baby is born and must end within 56 days of the birth (or the due date if the baby is premature).

Like SMP, unless the contract provides otherwise, an employee will not be entitled to their normal rate of pay during paternity leave but may be entitled to statutory paternity pay (SPP).

A surrogate’s partner is not eligible for paternity leave, even if they are married or in a civil partnership with the surrogate.

Neonatal Care Leave

In April 2025, the Government introduced a new right for parents to take neonatal care leave.

Under this right, eligible employees are entitled to take up to 12 weeks of neonatal care leave, with pay if they qualify, in addition to any other leave to which they are entitled.

Parents will be eligible for this right if their baby is in neonatal care for 7 consecutive days or more within the first 28 days from birth.

This new right is expected to benefit approximately 60,000 new parents and is thought to be a taste of the broadened rights expected to come from the forthcoming Employment Rights Bill.

Shared Parental Leave

Shared parental leave is unrelated to Parental Leave (as above).

As noted, mothers or primary adopters will be entitled to 52 weeks of maternity or adoption leave. Shared Parental Leave entitles them to shorten their leave and share the remainder with the child’s father or with the mother’s partner or, in adoption cases, the secondary adopter. The mother’s partner is either her husband, civil partner or someone who she is in an enduring romantic relationship with.

The mother or primary adopter will still be required to take their mandatory 2 weeks leave following the birth or placement of the baby.

Parental Leave

Parental leave grants employees the ability to take unpaid time off to care for their child. Employees will be entitled to take up to 18 weeks off per child, up to their 18^th birthday. Unless agreed otherwise with the employer, each parent is entitled to take a maximum of 4 weeks leave per year for each child.

Parental leave cannot be taken as individual days and instead must be taken in weeks, unless agreed otherwise with the employer.

To be eligible for parental leave, an employee must have been with the company for at least a year and must be either named on the birth or adoption certificate or have parental responsibility for the child. As an employer, you are entitled to ask for proof as long as it is reasonable to do so.

Employees must give at least 21 days’ notice that they intend to take parental leave, and employers can postpone the request for leave for up to 6 months if the leave is likely to harm the business.

Adoption Leave

If a couple are choosing to adopt, only one person can take adoption leave. The other parent will instead be entitled to paternity leave.

Adoption leave operates in much the same way as maternity leave, however leave will start either up to 14 days before the date the child starts living with the employee (for UK adoptions), when the child arrives in the UK or within 28 days of this date (overseas adoption) or the day the child is born (if via surrogacy).

As with SMP, unless noted otherwise in their contracts, employees taking adoption leave are not entitled to their normal rate of pay and will instead be paid statutory adoption pay for up to 39 weeks.

Employees must inform employers within 28 days if the date of placement changes and must give employers at least 8 weeks’ notice if they want their return-to-work date to change.

Surrogacy

When intended parents use surrogacy to start a family, one of the intended parents (if a couple) can opt to take adoption leave and the other can take paternity leave. It is up to them decide which each of them uses but they cannot swap at a later date.

Parental bereavement leave

Parental bereavement leave entitles employees who lose a child under the age of 18 years, or suffer a stillbirth after 24 weeks of pregnancy, to 2 weeks’ bereavement leave, regardless of length of service. If employees have 26 weeks’ continuous service, they will also be entitled to statutory bereavement pay.

Carer’s leave

Since 6 April 2024, the separate statutory right to carer’s leave has been available to employees in the UK. This leave, brought in by the Carer’s Leave Regulations 2024 (SI 2024/251), entitles employees to take up to one week of unpaid leave per year to care for a dependent with a long-term care need. This leave can be taken in half or full days, and it offers the same employment protections as other forms of family-related leave. Unless the contract of employment provides otherwise, carer’s leave will be unpaid as the Act does not provide for statutory carer’s pay, however, an employee is entitled to the benefit of all their other terms and conditions during the leave.

Annual leave and family-related rights

Employees on any of the leaves mentioned above will still accrue annual leave and have the right to return to employment in the same role, or a similar and not less favourable role than the one they had prior to taking leave.

In conclusion

Employment law, and in particular the family-related rights to which employee are entitled, can be a minefield for employers. However, given that the vast majority of employees will access these rights at some point in their employment, it is hugely important for employers to get them right.

We can help

If you or your organisation would like help in relation to any family related leave and pay issue, please contact our Employment Law team or your usual BTO contact.

Dawn Robertson, Partner: dro@bto.co.uk / 0131 381 2408

Amy Campbell, Trainee Solicitor: aca@bto.co.uk / 0141 673 3255