Adopted by Council – 2 October 2019
Reviewed & Adopted – 9 October 2024
Reviewed & Adopted – 8 July 2026
1. Purpose and scope
1.1 The purpose of this policy and procedure is to provide clear information about our paternity provisions. This document sets out our policy on paternity leave and pay.
1.2 Immediately you discover your partner is pregnant, you should make the council aware so that you can be briefed on your entitlements. Ordinary paternity leave is also available to adoptive parents (either the adoptive father or the adoptive mother) where a child is matched or newly placed with them for adoption.
2. Eligibility
2.1 To qualify for ordinary paternity leave employees must be taking the time off to look after the child and:
- have, or expect to have, responsibility for the child’s upbringing
- be the biological or adoptive parent of a child born or placed for adoption, or be the parent’s partner, or the intended parent (if the baby is born through a surrogacy arrangement).
3. Ante-natal appointments
3.1 An expectant father or the partner (including same sex) of a pregnant woman is entitled to take unpaid time off work to accompany the woman to up to 2 of her ante-natal appointments. The time off is capped at six and a half hours for each appointment. “Partner” includes the spouse or civil partner of the pregnant woman and a person (of either sex) in a long-term relationship with her. The right applies whether the child is conceived naturally or through donor insemination. It also extends to those who will become parents through a surrogacy arrangement if they expect to satisfy the conditions, and intend to apply, for a Parental Order for the child born through that arrangement.
3.2 Employees who are adopting a child are entitled to take time off to attend adoption appointments. Please see the Adoption Policy for full details.
3.3 You should endeavour to give the council as much notice as possible of when you need the time off for the antenatal appointment. We may ask you for a declaration stating the date and time of the appointment and that you qualify for the unpaid time off through your relationship with the mother or child, and that the time off is for the purpose of attending an ante-natal appointment with the expectant mother that has been made on the advice of a registered medical practitioner, nurse or midwife.
4. Ordinary Paternity Leave (OPL)
4.1 An employee whose partner gives birth to a child, or who is the biological father or either adoptive parent of the child, is entitled to two weeks’ ordinary paternity leave. OPL can commence from the date of the child’s birth, or child’s placement with the adopter, or within 52 weeks after the birth or date of placement
4.2 Ordinary Paternity Leave may be taken as either, one week, or two weeks in one consecutive block or two weeks in two one week non-consecutive blocks.
4.3 If you choose to start your OPL on a fixed and predetermined date and the child is not born or placed for adoption by that date, you must change the date you want to start your leave and notify us in writing as soon as you reasonably can. If you take both OPL and shared parental leave you must take ordinary paternity leave first.
Notification of Ordinary Paternity Leave
4.4 You must inform the council in writing, of your eligibility and intention to take paternity leave in or before the 15th week before the EWC.
4.5 You must then provide us with at least 28 days’ notice before the dates upon which they intend to take each period of leave, unless this is not reasonably practicable (in which case as soon as it is reasonably practicable).
The notification should specify:
- the week the baby is due
- the date of starting the leave
- that you are taking leave for the purpose of taking time off to look after your child in line with your entitlement to paternity leave
- How you wish to take the leave
- You can choose to take two one-week non-consecutive blocks of leave may inform us of when you want each block of leave to begin in one notification, or you may choose to provide us with a separate notification at a later date once you have made a decision. However, as above, you must ensure that a minimum of 28 days’ notice is provided before the beginning of each period of leave.
4.6 In the case of an adopted child, you must give notice of your intention to take ordinary paternity leave no later than seven days after the date on which notification of the match with the child was given by the adoption agency. The notice must specify the date the child is expected to be placed for adoption, the date you intend to start ordinary paternity leave, the length of the intended ordinary paternity leave period and the date on which the adopter was notified of having been matched with the child.
4.7 You can change your mind about the date on which you want the leave to start providing you tell your manager at least 28 days in advance (unless this is not reasonably practicable).
5. Ordinary Statutory Paternity Pay (OSPP)
5.1 You will qualify for OSPP if your weekly earnings in the 8 weeks up to and including the Qualifying Week (QW) are not less than the lower earnings limit for the payment of National Insurance contributions. The QW is 15 weeks before the baby is due or the week during which you are notified of being matched with a child for adoption.
5.2 Paternity leave will be paid at the prevailing rate of SPP or 90% of average weekly earnings if this figure is less than OSPP.
5.3 Someone who is under a contract of service with the employment status of ‘worker’ and who is paying Class 1 National Insurance contributions may qualify for SPP, based on the qualifying rules.
6. Shared Parental Leave (SPL)
6.1 The birth mother or primary adopter is entitled to curtail their maternity/adoption leave and pay and instead take SPL and pay in conjunction with the child’s father (in the case of birth) or the spouse, civil partner or partner of the child’s mother/adopter, subject to meeting the eligibility criteria. SPL enables parents to choose how to share the care of their child during the first year of birth. Its purpose is to give parents more flexibility in considering how to best care for, and bond with, their child. See the Shared Parental Leave Policy.
7. Pay increases awarded during paternity leave
7.1 We will ensure that whilst you are on PL you are not left out of a pay award which you would ordinarily have been entitled to. This means that if we make a pay award which takes effect during your PL, then when you return to work, you will return to the ‘new’ rate of pay that applies to the job you are returning to.
8. Returning to work
8.1 On resuming work after PL, you are entitled to return to the same job as you occupied before commencing paternity leave on the same terms and conditions of employment as if you had not been absent.
9. Requesting a change to your pattern of work
9.1 You have the right to request that the organisation considers changing your pattern of work (subject to eligibility criteria). See the Flexible Working Policy.
10. Additional paternity leave
10.1 Additional paternity leave is available to eligible employees who may take up to 26 weeks’ unpaid additional paternity leave within the first year of their child’s life provided that the mother has returned to work.
11. Data protection
11.1 When managing your paternity leave and pay, we will process personal data collected in accordance with the data protection policy. Personal and or sensitive information is held securely and accessed by, and disclosed to, staff who need to manage paternity leave and pay. Inappropriate access or disclosure of personal data would breach our data protection policy and should be reported immediately. A data breach may also constitute a disciplinary offence, which will be dealt with under the disciplinary procedure.
11.2 This is a non-contractual procedure which will be reviewed from time to time.
— policy ends here —
Notes
The wording of this policy is based on an employee’s statutory right to paternity leave and pay. Adopting and applying this policy as it stands will support the council to comply with this right.
- Green Book terms
If the council adopts Green Book terms and conditions of employment, maternity support leave of 5 days with pay shall be granted to the child’s father or the partner or nominated carer of an expectant mother at or around the time of birth. A nominated carer is the person nominated by the mother to assist in the care of the child and to provide support to the mother at or around the time of the birth.
Maternity support leave is separate to the statutory entitlement of Paternity Leave.
2. Enhanced paternity pay
Councils may enhance paternity benefits, such as paternity pay. There is no set formulae on such enhancement.
Guidance
Where there is text in [square brackets] this part may be updated or be deleted if not relevant. An alternative option may have been provided.
Important Notice
This is an example of an employment policy designed for a small council adhering to statutory minimum requirements and does not constitute legal advice. As with all policies it should be consistent with your terms and conditions of employment.
This document was commissioned by the National Association of Local Councils (NALC) for the purpose of its member councils and county associations. Every effort has been made to ensure that the contents of this document are correct at time of publication. NALC cannot accept responsibility for errors, omissions and changes to information subsequent to publication.
This document has been written by the HR Services Partnership – a company that provides HR advice and guidance to town and parish councils. Please contact them on 01403 240 205 for information about their services.