Q&A
Shared Parental Leave
What are Shared Parental Leave and Shared Parental Pay?
1.
What is Shared Parental Leave?
Shared Parental Leave (“SPL”) is a new way for parents to share statutory leave and pay in
respect of a child who is due to be born or adopted on or after 5th April 2015. It should not be
confused with the right to unpaid parental leave, or with paternity or maternity leave. It also
means that additional paternity leave is abolished in respect of births or adoptions of children
which are due to take place on or after 5th April 2015, although any individual on additional
paternity leave prior to this date will continue to use their additional paternity leave as planned.
If you make a request, your leave can be taken in one continuous block or, with the agreement
of your manager, as separate, discontinuous blocks of full weeks.
The intended parents in surrogacy arrangements may also be entitled to take advantage of
SPL.
2.
What is Shared Parental Pay?
Shared Parental Pay (“ShPP”) works like maternity/ adoption pay in that it is a statutory sum
paid by Bupa to eligible employees on SPL.
Any ShPP due will be paid at a rate set by the UK Government for the relevant tax year.
Currently, this is £139.58 or 90% of your average weekly earnings (whichever is lower).
Eligibility and how to apply for SPL and ShPP
3.
Who is eligible for SPL?
If you are a parent, to qualify for SPL, you must
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Have a partner
Be entitled to either maternity/ adoption leave or statutory maternity/ adoption pay or
maternity allowance, and
Have curtailed, or given notice to reduce, your maternity/ adoption leave, or your
maternity/ adoption pay/ allowance
To take SPL you must:


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Be an employee
Share the primary responsibility for your child with the other parent at the time of the
birth/ placement
Have properly notified Bupa of your entitlement and have provided the necessary
declarations and evidence
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Additionally, if you want to take SPL at Bupa you:
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4.
must have worked for Bupa for at least 26 weeks at the end of the 15th week before the
child’s expected due/ matching date and is still working for us at the start of each leave
period, and
in the 66 weeks leading up to the baby’s expected due/ matching date, your partner
must have worked for at least 26 weeks and earned an average of at least £30 a week in
any 13 weeks. This sum may change, depending on Government guidelines which
change from time to time.
Who is eligible for ShPP?
In addition to meeting the criteria for SPL, to be eligible for ShPP if you are a parent, you must;

Either be/ have been entitled to statutory maternity pay/allowance or adoption pay and
reduced your maternity/adoption pay period or maternity allowance period, or qualify for
statutory paternity pay and have a partner who qualifies for statutory maternity pay,
statutory adoption pay or maternity allowance;

intend to care for the child during the week in which ShPP is payable;

have average weekly earnings for the period of eight weeks leading up to and including
the 15th week before the child’s expected due date/matching date of not less than the
lower earnings limit in force for National Insurance contributions;

remain in continuous employment until the first week of ShPP has begun;

give proper notification along with your partner. This can be done by completing all
sections of the Bupa UK SPL application form, including:o
the start and end dates of any maternity/adoption pay or maternity allowance;
o
the total amount of ShPP available, the amount of ShPP you and your partner each
intend to claim, and a non-binding indication of when you expect to claim ShPP;
o
a signed declaration from you confirming that the information you have given is
correct, that you meet, or will meet, the criteria for ShPP and that you will
immediately inform Bupa if you are no longer eligible.
Please note that if you are entitled to receive ShPP, you must, at least eight weeks before
receiving any ShPP, give your manager written notice advising of your entitlement to ShPP. You
can do this by completing the pay section of the Bupa UK SPL application form and serving a
completed curtailment notice.
5.
What happens if I am to become a parent to more than one child at once?
You are not entitled to extra SPL or ShPP if you are expecting/ adopting more than one child.
Your entitlement mirrors maternity leave in that the arrangements are the same as if you were
only expecting one child.
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6.
I might want to take SPL, but am not sure yet of the dates. What should I do?
You should fill in Section A only of the Bupa UK SPL application form and hand it to your
manager, telling them that you might want to take SPL, but are not sure of the dates. This will
help your manager plan their resources if you do wish to give exact dates by filling in and
submitting the rest of the form.
7.
How do I work out how much SPL/ ShPP I have?
You need to work out how much maternity/ adoption leave is left and then, provided you are
eligible for SPL and have met the notice requirements, the remainder can be taken as SPL.
Similarly with pay, you need to work out how much of the 39 weeks’ maternity/ adoption pay or
leave is left and then, provided you are eligible and have met the notice requirements, you can
take the remainder as ShPP.
There is an online tool for calculating your entitlement at https://www.gov.uk/pay-leave-forparents .
After application
8.
What happens after I put in my request?
If you have made a request for continuous leave, provided you have fulfilled all the notice
requirements, your manager will write to you to confirm the leave. After this, you need not take
any further action and can go on the leave you requested, although your manager will still want
to meet with you to discuss the impact of your SPL on the business and you. If you do not
receive any communication from your manager after submitting your request, you should check
with them whether they have received it.
If it looks like it may not be possible to grant a request for discontinuous leave, or your manager
wishes to discuss whether it would be possible to change your request for a single block of
leave, you will be invited to a meeting to discuss matters further.
Please also note that in the unlikely event that you do not receive a response to a request for
discontinuous leave, you should not assume that your request has been granted. You must
have written permission from your manager before you can take discontinuous SPL.
9.
My manager wants to check my eligibility to take SPL. What do I have to give them?
Bupa may, within 14 calendar days of receiving your period of SPL notice, request a copy of the
child’s birth certificate (if there is one) and contact details of your partner’s employer.
In the case of adoption, Bupa may request one or more of the following documents issued by
the adoption agency that matched the child with you:
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The name and address of the adoption agency
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The date that the adoptive parent was notified of having been matched for adoption with
the child

The date on which the adoption agency expects to place the child with the adoptive
parent
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The name and address of the adoptive parent’s partner’s employer.
Please make sure that you provide the information within 14 calendar days.
10.
How soon after the birth of the child/ placement for adoption can SPL start?
For the mother/ main adopter, two weeks. It is not possible to start it any earlier as the mother/
main adopter must take two weeks’ compulsory maternity leave or adoption leave prior to
beginning their SPL.
However, for the father/ other adopter, the SPL can start immediately upon birth, as long as the
mother/ main adopter has given notice to end their maternity/ adoption leave. The father/ other
adopter may, however, wish to use their paternity leave, if entitled, first.
11.
My colleague made a request for discontinuous SPL and got it while I did not. Is this
automatically unfair?
No. Your manager will make a decision based on the resources available to them at the time of
receiving your request. It may be that circumstances have changed since your colleague’s
request and your manager is unable to agree to your request. In such circumstances, you are
encouraged to discuss matters with your manager as soon as possible to see if any other
patterns of leave are available.
Changes to Leave
12.
What happens if my child is born early?
Please inform your manager as soon as possible if this happens. If you booked to take SPL
within the first eight weeks of the due date, you may take the same period of time off after the
actual birth without having to provide eight weeks’ notice. To do this, please submit a notice to
vary your leave as soon as possible by using the Bupa UK SPL application form. This does not
count as one of your three notifications.
Any leave arranged after the first eight weeks of the due date is still bound by the eight week
notice required to vary leave.
If your child is born more than eight weeks before the due date and you have not yet served
notice to book SPL, there is no requirement to give eight weeks’ notice before the period of
leave starts – you should give the notice to take the leave as soon as possible.
13.
I have had my request for discontinuous leave turned down. Is there a right of appeal?
No, there is no right of appeal. However, it is likely that your manager will ask you to discuss it
further if they have turned it down, as they may wish to explore alternative solutions with you.
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14.
I have had my SPL dates agreed, but now I want to vary them.
You should submit a new Bupa UK SPL application form to your manager, making sure that the
first date on which you want the new leave to start is no earlier than eight weeks from the date
of submission of the form.
15.
How does the three request system work?
This system was introduced in order to allow parents flexibility in altering applications when their
circumstances change after a period of SPL has been agreed.
What counts as a request:
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A request for one continuous period of SPL
A request for discontinuous SPL and it is accepted by your manager
A request for discontinuous SPL which does not get a response from your manager and
you do not withdraw it on or before the 15th day after giving the notice
A written request to vary or cancel one of the above three examples, provided that the
request is not given less than eight weeks before the both the date varied and the new
date requested
A written request that a single period of leave become discontinuous periods of leave or
vice versa
Please note that these requests must state what periods of SPL you are entitled to. For this
reason, it is a good idea to use the Bupa UK SPL application form again.
What doesn’t count as a request:
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Notifying Bupa of your eligibility to take leave, but not of your intention to do so (for
example, by filling in Section A on the Bupa UK SPL application form, but not the rest of
it – you may wish to do this to put your manager on notice that you could be going on
SPL at a later date, but don’t know the dates yet)
A request for discontinuous leave which has not been agreed and which you withdraw in
writing on or before 15 days after it was submitted (for the avoidance of doubt, the day
you submit the request counts as day 1).
A variation of a request for discontinuous leave which has not been agreed by your
manager and which is made in writing on or before 19 days after it was submitted
A notice to vary which is given as a result of the child being born or placed earlier or later
than expected
A notice to vary which is given in response to a request from your manager that you vary
a period of SPL
Please note that if you have more than one employer, the three request limit applies in respect
of each employer (so you could make 3 with Bupa and 3 with another employer).
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16.
What happens if my partner is no longer caring for the child?
If circumstances change so that your partner is no longer responsible for caring for the child,
unless the reason for this is the death of the child, your partner’s entitlement to both SPL and
ShPP ceases immediately and they must tell their employer.
If your partner has any SPL arranged within eight weeks of their entitlement ending, Bupa can
still require them to take it as SPL if it is not reasonably practicable for them to return to work
(for instance, because cover has already been arranged). Any weeks of SPL arranged after
eight weeks of your partner’s entitlement ceasing must be cancelled.
However, if the remaining parent will still be continuing to care for the child, that parent is still
entitled to take their SPL entitlement. The remaining parent will only be able to transfer any of
the other parent’s outstanding SPL to their own entitlement if they can get the signed agreement
of the other parent to a notice confirming a variation of leave entitlement.
17.
Is my leave affected in the event of either disruption of the adoption placement, or the
death of either the child or of one of the parents taking SPL?
In such circumstances, please contact your manager as soon as possible. There are some
statutory notice requirements, but we would like to offer you as much support as possible during
this time to help explain what you need to do and to see what other support we can offer you.
During SPL
18.
Can I have a keep in touch day like someone on maternity leave?
Yes – this should be agreed between your manager and yourself. These days are known as
“SPL In Touch” (“SPLIT”) days, and you can have up to 20 with your manager’s agreement
during the amount of SPL to which you are entitled.
You do not have to work SPLIT days and Bupa is not required to offer them to you. However,
you may find that they come in useful for keeping up to date with what is happening at work or
for completing any training you need for your job.
19.
Can I work during my SPL?
You are not automatically entitled to work during your SPL. However, please see above for
details of SPLIT days which can be agreed between Bupa and you.
20.
If I work during my SPL for a different employer, what effect does it have on my SPL/ SPP
with Bupa?
If you have two employers, you are entitled to the SPL from both. However, you are not entitled
to claim ShPP from both. As it is a scheme run by the government, you cannot claim the benefit
twice – you must choose from which employer you wish to claim.
Additionally, you cannot be on maternity/ adoption leave from one employer and SPL from
another. In order to claim SPL, you must have brought forward the period on which you intend
your maternity/ adoption leave to end and done so at the same time.
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21.
How are SPLIT days paid?
You will be paid your entitlement under ShPP (if any). On top of this, Bupa adds money to make
your pay for the day equivalent to pay for the amount of hours you worked on your SPLIT day.
You do not get paid ShPP on top of your normal hourly pay.
Any work carried out on a day or part of a day counts as a day’s work for the purposes of
calculating how many of the maximum 20 SPLIT days you have to work. For instance, working 2
hours on a SPLIT day counts as one day of the 20 available to you. It does not, however, entitle
you to a full day’s pay, (unless your full day would have been 2 hours or fewer).
22.
What happens to my holiday?
Your holiday accrues as normal during your time on SPL. However, please note that it may not
always be possible to carry holiday over from one holiday year to the next. Therefore, if you
want to use your full contractual holiday entitlement, you should take care to plan your SPL
around it.
23.
I am at risk of redundancy but on SPL – what happens?
We will consult with you in the same way as we will consult all other employees who are
affected by this. We will either arrange a home visit so that we can start the consultation
process with you or arrange for you to come into your normal place of work - whichever is most
convenient for you.
24.
What happens to my pension and other contractual benefits while I am on SPL?
During SPL, although you do not receive salary, your contract of employment continues and the
following terms and conditions of your employment relating to benefits remain in force:
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Life insurance;
Health insurance;
Use of company car; and
Eligibility for bonus/incentive if applicable. Please refer to your scheme guidelines for
details.
Pension contributions will continue to be made during any period when you are receiving ShPP,
but not during any period of unpaid SPL. Your contributions will be based on actual pay,
whereas Bupa’s contributions will be based on what you would normally have earned had you
not been taking SPL.
If you have any further questions in relation to your pension, you should call the Pensions Team
on 0161 931 5551 or email them on [email protected]. If you are a Bupa Care Services
employee, you should contact the team on 0113 246 6827 or email them on
[email protected].
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Returning to Work
25.
I want to return from maternity/ adoption/ paternity leave earlier than planned and go on
SPL. What must I do?
In this case, you should send your manager a completed Bupa UK SPL request form at least
eight weeks before you want your maternity/ adoption/ paternity leave to end. Please note that
compulsory maternity/ adoption leave (i.e. the first two weeks after the birth or placement of the
child) must still be honoured.
The form can be found on People Place.
Please note that the date of the end of your maternity/ adoption leave must be:
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The last day of a week (Saturday), and
At least one day after 2 weeks from the date of birth/ placement for adoption/ maternity
leave, and
At least eight weeks after the date of the curtailment notice, and
At least one week before the last day of any maternity/ adoption pay/ allowance period
Additionally, in the case of maternity/ adoption allowance, you need to let the Department for
Work and Pensions know.
26.
Do I have the right to return to the same job when I come back?
In most cases, you will return to the same job you left. However, if there are any organisational
changes which take place while you are on SPL, it may be that your old job is no longer
available.
On returning to work after SPL, you are entitled to return to the same job if your total SPL and
maternity/ paternity/ adoption leave amount to 26 weeks or less. The same job here means the
one you had immediately prior to your most recent period of SPL.
If your total SPL and maternity/ paternity/ adoption leave amount to 26 weeks or more, if it is not
reasonably practicable to return you to the same job you had before you left, you may be
returned to another job on no less favourable terms and conditions which is both suitable and
appropriate.
SPL and other types of statutory leave and pay
27.
What happens to my maternity/ adoption leave/ pay?
In order to take SPL, you must end your statutory maternity/ adoption leave and/ or pay period,
or return to work. If you are not entitled to these types of leave, then you must end your
statutory maternity pay or maternity allowance period.
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28.
What happens to the old parental leave system? I used to be able to take 18 weeks
unpaid leave.
Parental leave is different to SPL. The former is the right of certain qualifying employees to take
up to 18 weeks’ unpaid leave if they are the parent of a child. Further details on parental leave
can be found in the Bupa UK parental leave policy.
29.
Can I still take ordinary paternity leave?
Yes. SPL is in addition to the statutory right to two weeks’ paternity leave available to fathers
and a mother’s/ adopter’s partner.
However, the Government has now abolished additional paternity leave in respect of births or
adoptions which take place on or after 5th April 2015. Please see the Bupa UK paternity leave
policy for further details.
30.
Can both parents take SPL at the same time?
Yes. Employees can be on statutory maternity or adoption leave while their partners are on
SPL, provided that they have given their employer notice that they wish to end this leave and
they have not used up their overall entitlement to statutory maternity/ adoption leave
Examples
Below are some examples which you may find helpful
Example 1:- Michelle
1st May – Michelle gave her manager a completed SPL application form and completed sections
C and D to say that this was a period of leave notice to take 6 months’ SPL from 1st July.
1st June – Michelle’s plans change and she doesn’t want the leave as originally requested.
Therefore, she submitted a notice to end her SPL in 8 weeks’ time (1st August). Ideally, Michelle
didn’t want any SPL at all, but her manager couldn’t change the cover arrangements he had
made. Therefore, Michelle still had to take some of the SPL she had booked.
1st July – Michelle goes on SPL.
1st August – Michelle returns from SPL.
In total, Michelle took 4 weeks’ SPL and used up 2 of her 3 requests (notice plus variation).
Example 2:- Lesley
Lesley works for Bupa and another employer. She gives notice to curtail her maternity leave to
Bupa from week 32 of her maternity leave, and to the other employer from week 30.
The maximum amount of SPL available to Lesley will be 20 weeks (52 minus 32).
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Example 3:- Jo and Dave
7 weeks before having her baby, and 3 weeks before her maternity leave and pay start, Jo gives
Bupa notice to curtail her maternity leave and pay after 10 weeks of maternity leave. At the
same time, the baby’s father, Dave, gave his employer notice that he wanted to take 26 weeks’
SPL following completion of his paternity leave.
5 weeks after the birth, Jo changes her mind and revokes her notice to curtail her maternity
leave and pay. At that point, Dave ceases to be eligible to go on SPL as he planned. He has,
however, already taken 3 weeks of SPL and his employer has already recruited someone to do
his job while he is away. Dave notifies his employer immediately of this change in
circumstances and that he is no longer eligible. Although it would be possible for Dave’s
employer to have him back straight away, due to the costs involved, Dave’s employer decides to
enforce his right to have Dave wait the full 8 weeks before returning 11 weeks after the birth.
Jo then decides at a later date to curtail her maternity leave after 26 weeks but wants to work
out how much SPL she has left to take.
This creates the following entitlement:52 weeks of maternity leave, minus 30 weeks of maternity leave (4 weeks before birth and 26
weeks thereafter).
3 weeks of SPL for Dave (taken immediately after his 2 weeks paternity leave).
A further 8 weeks of SPL for Dave (while his employer made him wait to return, he enjoyed time
at home with Jo who was on her maternity leave).
The total amount of SPL left for Jo if she wants it is 52 – (30+3+8) = 11 weeks.
She has used her 3 requests (original notice to take SPL, notice to vary and the final notice to
take the 11 weeks remaining).
If you have any further questions which are not listed above, please contact your manager.
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