Shared parental leave policy

1. Purpose and scope

1.1 RoS is committed to helping its employees to balance their family and work commitments. This policy explains the leave and pay available to you when taking Shared Parental Leave.

1.2 Shared Parental leave (SPL) is for eligible RoS employees. It provides choice and flexibility in the way that you and your co-parent can take leave to care for your child in the first year following their birth/adoption.

1.3 This policy should be read in conjunction with the shared parental leave procedure.

2. Guiding principles

2.1 The principles of the Shared Parental Leave (SPL) policy are that:

• the amount of SPL and pay will be comparable to that of RoS maternity leave policy and adoption policy
• you can take leave in blocks separated by periods of work or take it all in one go
• you can choose to be off work at the same time as your partner or to stagger the leave and be off at different times during the first year
• you can start SPL, if you're eligible, and you or your co-parent end maternity or adoption leave or pay early. The remaining leave will be available as SPL and shared parental pay (ShPP)
• sPL can only start once your child has been born or adopted.

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 the  Strategic People Authority annually, unless earlier review is appropriate.