60 second guide: to paternity leave

Ordinary paternity leave Ordinary paternity leave (OPL) and pay – Employees who have 26 week continuous employment as at the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth can choose to take either one week or two consecutive weeks' paid paternity leave (not odd days). Employees must take OPL within 56 days of the date of birth of the child (or the due date if the baby is earlier). There are different start and end dates for adoption. From April 2013, statutory paternity pay amounted to £136.78 per week, or 90 per cent of average weekly earnings, if that is less. Additional paternity leave Additional paternity leave (APL) and pay – Eligible employees can take up to 26 weeks paternity leave to care for a new baby. APL can be taken any time from 20 weeks after the child is born, but it must have finished by the child's first birthday. Again, the start and end dates differ for adoption. In order for an employee to qualify to take APL and receive paternity pay, the child's mother or co-adopter must have started working again and not in receipt of statutory maternity or statutory adoption pay. Shared parental leave A new system of shared parental leave will be introduced in 2015. Under this system, parents will be able to choose how they share care of their child in the first year after birth. Employed mothers will still be entitled to 52 weeks of maternity leave; however, working parents will be able to opt to share leave. Mothers will still be required to take the initial two weeks following birth as maternity leave. However, following that, they can choose to end maternity leave and instead opt to share their remaining leave and pay entitlement as shared parental leave. The Government is due to provide further details and produce legislation in respect of the proposed changes next year.