Ordinary parental leave policy

1. Purpose and scope

1.1 Registers of Scotland (RoS) is committed to helping its employees to balance family and work commitments. This policy applies to all RoS employees and sets out your entitlement to ordinary parental leave and right to return to your job after taking such leave. All the rights described in this policy apply providing the qualifying conditions are satisfied.

1.2 Ordinary parental leave is a right for parents to take unpaid time off work to look after a child or make arrangements for the child’s welfare during the first 18 years of the child’s life. Parents can use this leave to spend more time with their children and strike a better balance between their work and family commitments.

1.3 Employees who are planning to take such leave should discuss this with their line manager as early as possible and they can arrange to discuss the procedures to follow.

2. Guiding principles

This section outlines the principles of the ordinary parental leave policy.

2.1 You are entitled to up to 18 weeks' unpaid ordinary parental leave per child if you:

• are the parent of a child who is under 18 years of age
• have acquired formal parental responsibility for a child who is under 18 years of age.

2.2 To qualify for ordinary parental leave, you must have completed at least one year's continuous service with RoS.

2.3 Ordinary parental leave should not be confused with shared parental leave. RoS provides a separate policy on shared parental leave.

2.4 This policy should be read in conjunction with the ordinary parental leave procedure.

3. Roles and responsibilities

3.1 Strategic People Authority (SPA) is responsible for the content of this policy, its approval and review. They are responsible for ensuring its implementation in practice and for monitoring this over time. They are responsible for ensuring that appropriate procedures, guidelines or standards as are required to support this are maintained and ownership for these assigned appropriately.

4. Approval and review

4.1 This policy will be reviewed and approved by the SPA annually, unless earlier review is appropriate.