This policy applies to those adopting in the UK.
If you are adopting from overseas, a similar policy exists with the same provisions but with slightly different definitions so please contact the HR Team who will explain the differences to you.
Adoption Leave
All employees (regardless of length of service) who adopt a child through an approved adoption agency are entitled to take up to 26 weeks' Ordinary Adoption Leave (OAL) and up to a further 26 weeks' (AAL) and to resume work afterwards. You are therefore entitled to a total period of 52 weeks' adoption leave. Additional adoption leave follows on immediately from the end of the period of ordinary adoption leave.
Parents who will become the legal parents of a child under a surrogacy arrangement are entitled to take statutory adoption leave. Local authority foster parents who are also prospective adopters ("foster to adopt") are entitled to take adoption leave.
All employees who take adoption leave have the right to return to work at any time during either OAL or AAL, subject to following the correct notification procedures as set out in the returning to work section below.
Adoption Pay
If you meet all of the following criteria you will be entitled to our enhanced adoption pay (which includes Statutory Adoption Pay):
- You have been continuously employed by us for at least 26 weeks as at the week in which notification of matching was given by the adoption agency
- Your average weekly earnings are not less than the lower earnings limit for national insurance contributions.
If you meet these criteria, your adoption pay will be:
- your normal weekly earnings during the first 26 weeks of adoption
- Statutory Adoption Pay for the next 13 weeks of adoption leave (weeks 27 to 39)
- the next 13 weeks of adoption leave will be unpaid (weeks 40 to 52).
Adoption pay is treated as earnings and is therefore subject to PAYE and national insurance deductions.
Pay Increases
If you become eligible for a pay rise between the start of the original calculation period and the end of your adoption leave (whether OAL or AAL), your adoption pay will be recalculated to take account of the pay rise, regardless of whether adoption pay has already been paid. This means that your adoption pay will be recalculated and increased retrospectively. You will be paid a lump sum to make up any difference between adoption pay already paid and the amount payable as a result of the pay rise.
Repayment if you decide not to return to work (or you return but don’t stay for at least six months)
Statutory Adoption Pay is payable whether or not you intend to return to work after adoption leave. However if you receive enhanced adoption pay and do not return to work and stay for at least six months we reserve the right to require you to repay the enhanced adoption pay (i.e. the amount you received over what you would have received had you just been on Statutory Adoption Pay) as follows:
- If you do not return to work or if you return to work but stay for less than three months following the date your adoption leave ended, you will be required to repay 100% of the enhanced pay
- If you return to work and stay for three months but less than six months following the date your adoption leave ended, you will be required to repay 50% of the enhanced pay
- If you return to work and stay for at least six months following the date your adoption leave ended, there will be no repayment required.
Timing of adoption leave
OAL can start on the day the child is placed for adoption, or up to 14 days earlier.
Notice requirements
To be entitled to take adoption leave and receive adoption pay, you must give us written notification of your intention to take adoption leave no later than seven days after the date on which notification of the match with the child was provided by the adoption agency. The notice must include:
- the date the child is expected to be placed with you for adoption
- the date you intend your adoption leave to start
- a "matching certificate" from the adoption agency
You may bring forward your adoption leave start date, provided that you let us know in writing at least 28 days before the new start date or, if that is not possible, as soon as reasonably practicable.
You may also postpone your adoption leave start date, provided that you let us know in writing at least 28 days before the original proposed start date or, if that is not possible, as soon as reasonably practicable.
Within 28 days of receiving your notice of intention to take adoption leave, we will write to you confirming the latest date on which you must return to work after adoption leave.
Time off to attend adoption appointments
Employees who are adopting a child are entitled to take time off to attend adoption appointments.
If you are adopting a child alone, you are entitled to take paid time off to attend up to five adoption appointments. If you are part of a couple jointly adopting a child, the couple can elect for one of them to take paid time off to attend up to five adoption appointments. The other is entitled to elect to take (unpaid) time off to attend up to two adoption appointments. If you are the one electing to take time off to attend just two adoption appointments, we will at our discretion, grant you paid time off for those two appointments.
The purpose of the appointment is to enable you (and your partner) to have contact with the child (for example, to bond with him/her before the placement) and for any other purpose connected with the adoption (for example, to meet with the professionals involved in the care of the child).
The appointment must have been arranged by or at the request of the adoption agency. The time off must be taken before the date of the child's placement for adoption with you.
We may ask for proof of the date and time of the appointment and that the appointment has been arranged by or at the request of the adoption agency (for example, a letter or email from the adoption agency).
Rights during adoption leave
During OAL and AAL all terms and conditions of your employment contract other than normal salary will continue. Salary will be replaced by adoption pay if you are eligible for it.
This means that, while your salary will cease, all other benefits will remain in place. For example, holiday entitlement will continue to accrue and employer’s pension contributions will continue to be paid.
You are encouraged to take any outstanding holiday due before the commencement of adoption leave. Normally holiday must be taken in the year that it is earned, however for adoption returners we will, at our discretion, allow carry over into the following holiday year. Requests to take this holiday must be made in the normal way and approved by your line manager.
Contact during adoption leave
We believe that staying in touch during your adoption leave is helpful for you and for us and so we reserve the right to maintain reasonable contact with you during that time. For example this may be to discuss your plans for returning to work, to discuss any special arrangements to be made or training to be given to help you back into work. We will also keep you updated on developments at work during your absence.
Keeping-in-touch days
You can agree to work (or to attend training) for up to 10 days during your adoption leave without that work bringing your adoption leave to an end and without loss of a week's statutory adoption pay. These are known as "keeping-in-touch" days. Any work carried out on a day shall constitute a full day's work for these purposes. We have no right to expect you to work and you have no right to insist on working - any work undertaken, and the amount you are paid for any work done on keeping-in-touch days, is entirely a matter for agreement between you and us.
Returning to work after adoption leave
You may return to work during OAL or AAL, provided you give the appropriate notification. Alternatively, you may take your full 52 weeks of adoption leave and return to work at the end of this period. If you wish to return before the full period of adoption leave has elapsed, you must give us at least eight weeks' notice in writing of the date on which you intend to return.
If you return to work at or before the end of OAL, you have the right to return to the same job you were doing before adoption leave. If you return work after a period of AAL, you are entitled to return either to the same job or, if this is not reasonably practicable, to another suitable job that is on terms and conditions not less favourable.
Failure to return to work by the end of adoption leave will be treated as an unauthorised absence unless you are sick and produce a current medical certificate before the end of the adoption leave period.
If you decide during adoption leave that you do not wish to return to work, you should give us written notice of resignation in accordance with the terms of your contract of employment.
Transfer of adoption leave
(Shared parental leave and pay)
Shared parental leave enables adopters to commit to ending their adoption leave and pay at a future date, and to share the untaken balance of leave and pay as shared parental leave and pay with their partner, or to return to work early from adoption leave and opt in to shared parental leave and pay at a later date.
Shared parental leave must be taken in blocks of at least one week. You can request to take shared parental leave in one continuous block (in which case we are required to accept the request as long as you meet the eligibility and notice requirements), or as a number of separate blocks of leave (in which case you need our agreement).
To be able to take shared parental leave, you and your partner must meet various eligibility requirements and have complied with the relevant curtailment, notice and evidence requirements. This includes the adopter curtailing her adoption leave.
Please see our policy on shared parental leave for full details of the requirements for eligibility, curtailment, notice periods and evidence. The policy also contains details on shared parental pay.
You and your partner must ensure that you each liaise with your own employer when making requests for shared parental leave.