Paternity and co-parent leave policy

1. Purpose and Scope

1.1 Registers of Scotland (RoS) is committed to helping its employees to balance their family and work commitments.

1.2 This policy applies to all employees who:

• are the father of the child, or
• have a partner who is having a baby, or
• are adopting a child with someone who is taking adoption leave/pay, or
• are the intended parents of a baby through a surrogacy arrangement, or
• are the primary carer of a child during the first 52 weeks of their life.

1.3 This policy sets out both your statutory rights and responsibilities and the enhanced paternity leave that RoS offers to employees who have 26 weeks continuous service by the end of the 15th week before the week in which your child is expected.

1.4 This policy should be read in conjunction with paternity / co-parent leave procedure.

1.5 We would advise that you read this policy in conjunction with the shared parental leave policy. Some rights contained in this policy will be rescinded should maternity leave be curtailed and one or both parents opt into (and are eligible for) the shared parental leave scheme.

2. Guiding principles

This section outlines the principles of the paternity / co-parent leave policy.

2.1 Paternity / co-parent leave will not impact your terms and conditions of employment.

2.2 You are entitled to 2 weeks ordinary, statutory paternity / co-parent leave and 2 weeks RoS occupational paternity / co-parent leave if you have 26 weeks' continuous service by the end of the 15th week before the week in which your child is expected. Your maximum entitlement is therefore to take up to 4 weeks’ paternity / co-parent leave.

2.3 You will be paid full pay for both ordinary and RoS occupational paternity / co-parent leave if you have 26 weeks' continuous service by the end of the 15th week before the week in which your child is expected. In respect of an adopted child, you must have 26 weeks' continuous service by the week in which you are notified of having been matched with your child for adoption. This means that you will receive full pay for the time that you are on paternity leave.

2.4 Paternity / co-parent leave is granted in addition to your normal annual holiday entitlement.

2.5 Both ordinary (statutory) and occupational paternity / co-parent leave must be taken in either 1 week or 1,2,3 or 4 consecutive weeks.

2.6 If your child is born early, you must take your leave from the time of the birth but within 52 weeks of the expected date of childbirth.

2.7 Ordinary paternity / co-parent leave can start either from the date the child is born or placed for adoption.

2.8 If you wish to take the two weeks additional occupational paternity / co-parent leave that RoS offer, you must inform your line manager.

3. Roles and responsibilities

3.1 Strategic People Authority 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 Strategic People Authority (SPA) annually, unless earlier review is appropriate.

Approval and review