New changes to paternity leave

New changes to paternity leave will provide more flexibility to eligible employees.

Another upcoming change to legislation, as part of the recent Government focus on family-friendly reforms, reports that there will be more flexibility for employees who are entitled to paternity leave.

The current rules around paternity leave offer eligible employees either a block of one or two weeks that they can take during the first eight weeks following the birth and/or adoption of the child.

The new plans, to be introduced in due course, will give eligible employees the chance to split their paternity leave entitlement into two one-week blocks, which they can then choose to take at any point within the first year of the birth/adoption of the child.

These new plans also include amendments to the notification procedure for employees wishing to take paternity leave.

It will be expected that eligible employees will provide notice of their intent to take leave 15 weeks before the expected week of childbirth (EWC).

They will then be required to give 28 days’ notice prior to each specific period of leave that they wish to take.

While this offers greater flexibility for eligible employees, there are still calls for further changes, including increases to paternity entitlement, such as offering a period of six weeks of paid leave.

We will continue to update on when these changes will come into effect.