Employment Law Guide 2026: Paternity and parental leave

From April 2026, employees will qualify for paternity and unpaid parental leave from the first day of their employment. The current service requirements (26 weeks’ service at the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth for paternity leave and one year’s service at the time leave is taken for parental leave) are being removed by the ERA 2025.

Qualifying conditions for statutory paternity pay will not change, so employees will still need 26 weeks’ service at the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth to qualify for statutory paternity pay, or in adoption cases 26 weeks’ service at the date the adopter is notified of being matched with the child. Parental leave will remain unpaid.

Currently there is an anomaly regarding paternity leave which means that fathers or partners who take shared parental leave before paternity leave are not able to take any remaining untaken paternity leave. This anomaly will be removed from April 2026 giving more flexibility for those taking paternity and shared parental leave.

On 29 December 2025, the Paternity Leave (Bereavement) Act 2024 came into force, introducing a day one right to paternity leave for bereaved partners (and so removing the 26 week qualifying period in circumstances covered by the Act). This entitles the child’s father, or the partner of the child’s mother or adopter to take paternity leave, irrespective of their length of service, where the mother or adopter of the child dies in childbirth, or within one year of the birth or adoption. The Act also allows a parent who has taken shared parental leave and whose partner subsequently dies to take paternity leave (which was previously prohibited due to anomaly mentioned above). These changes will only have an impact for a short period of time, due to the more general changes to paternity leave outlined above.

However, further regulations under the Paternity Leave (Bereavement) Act 2024 could be made which would:

• Disapply the requirement for paternity leave to be taken for the purposes of caring for the child or supporting the mother, where both the child and mother die (or in adoption cases, where the adopter dies and the child dies or is returned)
• Provide for a bereaved employee to work during a period of bereaved partner's paternity leave, without bringing that leave to an end (for example, keeping-in-touch (KIT) days),
• Provide for enhanced redundancy protection after a period of bereaved partner's paternity leave, and
• Extend the period of available leave in such circumstances to 52 weeks, rather than the usual two weeks

Implications/Action points

• Plan for a greater number of absences as more employees qualify for leave
• Train managers so they understand the new leave obligations
• Update paternity, parental and shared parental leave policies to reflect the changes.