Unpaid parental leave: 18 weeks per child and 4 weeks a year

Unpaid parental leave is one of the least used rights in British employment law, and one of the most generous on paper: 18 weeks for every child, usable at any point until that child turns 18. It carries no pay, but your job and your holiday entitlement are protected while you take it.

What is unpaid parental leave?

It is leave an eligible employee takes to look after their child's welfare. GOV.UK spells out the reasons: attending the birth of their child, spending more time with their children, looking at new schools, settling children into new childcare arrangements, and spending more time with family such as visiting grandparents.

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Employment rights — holidays and the right to return to a job — are protected throughout.

How many weeks do you get, and over what period?

Eighteen weeks for each child and each adopted child, up to that child's 18th birthday.

You cannot spend it quickly, though. The limit on how much parental leave each parent can take in a year is 4 weeks for each child, unless the employer agrees otherwise.

It must be taken as whole weeks — one week, two weeks — rather than individual days. There are two exceptions: your employer agrees, or your child is disabled.

A "week" is measured against your own rota, not the calendar. GOV.UK gives the example: an employee who works three days a week has a "week" of parental leave equal to three days. For irregular weeks, take the total number of days worked in a year and divide by 52.

Do the weeks follow you to a new job?

Yes, and this is the detail most people miss. Parental leave applies to each child, not to an individual's job. GOV.UK's example: an employee entitled to 18 weeks who has used 10 with a previous employer can use up to 8 weeks with the new one, if they are eligible there.

Who does not qualify?

Every condition has to apply at once. You must be named on the child's birth or adoption certificate, or have — or expect to have — parental responsibility. You must be an employee: the self-employed, workers, agency workers and contractors are excluded. Foster parents are excluded too, unless they have secured parental responsibility through the courts. And the child must be under 18.

Employers can ask for proof such as a birth certificate, as long as the request is reasonable — they cannot demand proof every single time you ask for leave.

It is worth checking the staff handbook anyway: employers can choose to offer parental leave to groups the law does not cover.

How much notice must you give?

Twenty-one days before the intended start date. If you or your partner are having a baby or adopting, it is 21 days before the week the baby or child is expected.

You must confirm both the start and the end date in your notice. It does not have to be in writing unless your employer asks for that.

Can your employer postpone it?

Sometimes, and on strict terms. Leave cannot be postponed if the employer has no "significant reason" — for example that it would cause serious disruption to the business; if it is being taken by the father or partner immediately after the birth or adoption; or if postponing it would mean the employee no longer qualifies, such as pushing the leave past the child's 18th birthday.

Where a postponement is allowed, the employer has three duties. It must write explaining why within 7 days of the original request. It must suggest a new start date, and that date must fall within 6 months of the one you asked for. And it cannot change the amount of leave you requested.

How is this different from emergency time off?

They are two separate mechanisms, and confusing them is expensive. Parental leave is for situations you know about in advance: a school visit, a house move, a trip to relatives. Time off for dependants is for what happens without warning — the call from school, a child suddenly unwell.

The rules differ: parental leave needs 21 days' notice and comes in whole weeks, while emergency time off is taken immediately and in a "reasonable" amount. The one thing they share is that your employer does not have to pay for either.