The Government and Acas have both published online guidance for employers in advance of new legislation giving eligible employees the right to Shared Parental Leave (SPL) and Statutory Shared Parental Pay (ShPP) if their baby is due on or after 5 April 2015 or they adopt a child on or after 5 April 2015.

The Gov.UK guidance, Shared Parental Leave and Pay: employer guide, provides an overview of the new scheme and then looks at eligibility, entitlement, starting Shared Parental Leave, blocks of leave and record keeping. The Acas guidance, Shared parental leave and pay, sets out the key points, provides a summary of the new provisions and considers how the new regulations will work in practice, covering developing a policy, the process involved in requesting Shared Parental Leave, the need to discuss intentions early on and holding discussions following a request for Shared Parental Leave, which includes highlighting the six possible outcomes. Acas is also preparing in-depth guidance, which is due to be released in the autumn.

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