General Parental Rights
Employees who have completed one year's service with an employer are entitled to 18 weeks’ unpaid ‘ordinary’ parental leave for each child born or adopted. Subject to their qualification for parental leave and the correct notice being given to their employer, an employee should be able to take parental leave at any time up to the child’s 18th birthday.
The limit on how much parental leave each parent can take in a year is four weeks for each child.
Parental leave can be taken in addition to any maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave entitlements.