Paternity leave changes
Contents
Qualifying criteria changes
Paternity leave is available to employees following the birth of a child, or the placement of a child for adoption.
Currently, amongst other qualifying conditions, they must be continuously employed for at least 26 weeks up until what's known as the 'qualifying week'.
However, this is set to become available to employees (who satisfy the other qualifying conditions) from the day they start work (i.e. it'll become a day-one right).
This will apply to employees in any of the following circumstances:
- Their child is born on or after 6 April 2026 (this includes surrogacy arrangements).
- Their child is born before 6 April 2026, but the expected week of birth was on or after 5 April 2026 (this includes surrogacy arrangements)
- Their child is placed for adoption on or after 6 April 2026.
Note that statutory paternity pay is not becoming a day-one right as part of these changes and will still require employees to have 26 weeks' continuous service to be eligible for it.
Bereavement situations
Changes introduced on 29 December 2025 mean that the day-one right already applies in situations where either:
- The mother of a child died in childbirth; or
- Within a year of a birth or adoption, the mother or the child's adopter (or main adopter, if jointly adopted) dies.
This will be extended from 6 April 2026, at which point a bereaved employee will qualify to take up to 52 weeks of unpaid Bereaved partner's paternity leave.
New interim rules
As of 18 February 2026, the following interim rules will apply to employees:
- For births: currently, employees must give notice (and evidence of their other qualifying requirements) to take paternity leave by the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth (EWC). This has been reduced to 28 days if the EWC falls between 5 April 2026 and 25 July 2026.
- For adoptions: the required declarations and notices can be given at any time from 18 February 2026 to ensure leave can start on 6 April 2026.
Paternity leave and shared parental leave: rule change
Currently, employees cannot take any paternity leave (or statutory paternity pay) if they first took a period of statutory shared parental leave (SSPL).
This restriction is set to be removed.
From 6 April 2026, employees will have a right to take paternity leave if they have already taken any SSPL and can also receive statutory paternity pay if they took SSPL or received statutory shared parental pay.
Note that changes introduced on 29 December 2025 mean that this already applies if the child's primary carer dies.