Summary of important recent changes to maternity, adoption and shared parental leave 


The rules on statutory maternity and adoption leave changed for babies born on or after 5 April 2015, enabling eligible mothers and adopters to choose to opt into the shared parental leave (SPL) regime, explained below. Any employee who chooses not to opt into SPL preserves their right to take 52 weeks’ maternity or adoption leave. 


The following important changes were also made to the rules on statutory adoption leave, for babies matched for adoption on or after 5 April 2015, bringing the adoption regime broadly into line with that of statutory maternity leave:


• statutory adoption leave became a Day One right (removing the requirement for 26 weeks’ continuous service); 


• the statutory adoption pay (SAP) rules changed. The first six weeks of statutory adoption pay are now paid at 90% of the employee’s normal earnings, mirroring arrangements for statutory maternity pay (SMP). The rules on SAP and SMP are explained below; and


• some surrogate parents became eligible for statutory adoption leave.