Studio 24 handbook

Maternity, Paternity, Adoption and Surrogate Parents leave

When you take time off to have a baby you might be eligible for:

  • paid time off for antenatal care

  • maternity leave

  • maternity pay or maternity allowance

Antenatal care

Antenatal care is paid time off for medical appointments. This also includes antenatal or parenting classes if they’ve been recommended by a doctor or midwife.

The father or pregnant woman’s partner has the right to unpaid time off work to go to 2 antenatal appointments. You can take off up to 6.5hrs per appointment.

Maternity leave

Statutory Maternity Leave is 52 weeks. You don’t have to take 52 weeks, but you must take 2 weeks’ leave after your baby is born.

Usually, the earliest you can start your leave is 11 weeks before the expected week of childbirth.

While you are on maternity leave holiday accrues and carries over in full across the calendar year. You can choose to either take holiday to extend your maternity leave or take it as normal when you return to work. However, where the amount of holiday to be taken may be difficult for Studio 24 to accommodate, we reserve the right to require you to take the holiday at times set by us.

Maternity pay

Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) is payable for the first 39 weeks from the commencement of your Maternity Leave. For the first six weeks, SMP is paid at 90% of your average weekly earnings, followed by a further 33 weeks at a rate set by the Government.

To be eligible for SMP, you must have been employed for 26 weeks at the fifteenth week before the Expected Week of Childbirth (EWC).

If you do not qualify for SMP, you may be eligible for the State Maternity Allowance (SMA).

Informing us

At least 15 weeks before your due date, tell your line manager when the baby is due and when you want to start your maternity leave (please confirm this via email so we have this for our records).

If this isn’t possible (e.g. because you didn’t know you were pregnant) please tell us as soon as possible.

On receipt of your notification of the date you intend to commence Maternity Leave Studio 24 will acknowledge your notification within twenty-eight days, advising you of the date on which you will be expected to return to work.

Please provide a certificate of expected childbirth (form MAT B1) or equivalent document signed by your doctor or registered midwife.

If for any reason you want to change the expected start date of your Maternity Leave please give us 28 days' notice.

Change your date for returning to work

It is up to you when you feel ready to return to work (up to 52 weeks).

You must give us at least 8 weeks’ notice if you want to change your return to work date.

Keeping in Touch Days

During your maternity leave you may request or be requested to complete up to ten ‘keeping in touch’ days without affecting your maternity leave or pay. These days may be used to undertake work or training but can only be taken with agreement between you and Studio 24.

You will be paid for Keeping in Touch days at your normal pro rata rate at either half a day or a day.

Contact your line manager to arrange a Keeping in Touch day.

Paternity Leave

When you take time off because your partner’s having a baby, adopting a child or having a baby through a surrogacy arrangement you might be eligible for:

  • 2 weeks paid Paternity Leave

  • Shared Parental Leave, if your child was due or placed for adoption on or after 5 April 2015

Antenatal care

Antenatal care is paid time off for medical appointments. This also includes antenatal or parenting classes if they’ve been recommended by a doctor or midwife.

The father or pregnant woman’s partner has the right to unpaid time off work to go to 2 antenatal appointments. You can take off up to 6.5hrs per appointment.

You may be required to make a written declaration of the date and time of the appointment, that you qualify for unpaid leave through your relationship with the expectant mother, that the time off is to attend an ante-natal appointment and that the appointment has been made on the advice of a registered medical practitioner, nurse or midwife.

Paternity leave

If you are the natural or adoptive father of a child, you will have the right to take up to two weeks paid Paternity Leave.

Paternity Leave must be taken in one block. Paternity Leave should be taken within eight weeks from the child’s birth or placement.

To be eligible for Paternity Leave, you must have been employed for 26 weeks at the fifteenth week before the Expected Week of Childbirth (EWC), or ending with the week in which you are notified of being matched for adoption.

You can change your mind about when you start leave and for how long, but you must give Studio 24 twenty-eight days notice, or as much notice as is reasonably practicable of such a change. Paternity Leave is for one or two consecutive weeks and cannot be taken in odd days. Paternity Leave should be taken within eight weeks from the child’s birth or placement.

Paternity pay

Paternity pay is paid at the statutory rate set by the government which is the same as statutory maternity pay or at 90% of your average weekly earnings (whichever is the lower) for up to two weeks.

Adoption leave

If you are notified by an approved Adoption Agency of a match with a child or children, you are entitled to Adoption Leave. If a couple adopt jointly, one may take adoption leave and the other parent may be able to take paternity leave. Adopters maybe entitled to shared parental leave.

You will be entitled to fifty-two weeks of adoption leave from day one of employment. Ordinary Adoption Leave lasts for twenty-six weeks and Additional Adoption Leave lasts for a further twenty-six weeks. You must have notified the employer of your acceptance of the placement and agreed date. To change the date of your Adoption Leave you must give Studio 24 at least twenty-eight day’s notice. You must notify Studio 24 as to when the child is expected to be placed for adoption and the date you want leave to begin. Adoption leave can start on the day the child is placed for adoption, or up to 14 days earlier. Studio 24 may request evidence of the entitlement to Adoption Leave.

Employees who take adoption leave will also qualify for statutory adoption pay, provided that they have 26 weeks' service calculated as at the week in which notification of matching was given by the adoption agency and have average weekly earnings not less than the lower earnings limit for national insurance contributions. Statutory adoption pay is payable for up to 39 weeks. In relation to adoption pay periods beginning on or after 5 April 2015, statutory adoption pay is payable at 90% of normal earnings for the first six weeks, following which it is payable at the rate set by the Government for the relevant tax year (or 90% of normal earnings, if that is lower than the Government's rate).

Parents who will become the legal parents of a child under a surrogacy arrangement are entitled to take statutory adoption leave if the child's expected week of birth begins on or after 5 April 2015. Local authority foster parents who are also prospective adopters (foster to adopt) are entitled to take ordinary adoption leave in relation to children matched for adoption on or after 5 April 2015.

Time off to attend adoption appointments

Employees who are adopting a child are entitled to take time off to attend adoption appointments. An employee adopting a child alone is entitled to take paid time off to attend up to five adoption appointments. Where an employee is 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 can elect to take unpaid time off to attend up to two adoption appointments. 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 the employee.

Studio 24 will ask the individual 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. In addition, if the employee is adopting jointly, Studio 24 will ask the individual to sign a declaration, to be submitted alongside the documentary evidence, confirming that he/she has elected to exercise his/her right under the Employment Rights Act 1996 to take time off to attend an adoption appointment. Studio 24 will ask for the declaration on the first occasion on which the individual asks for time off to attend an adoption appointment.

Keeping-in-touch days

Employees can agree to work for the organisation (or to attend training) for up to 10 days during their adoption leave without that work bringing their 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 day's work for these purposes. Should you require any further information regarding ‘keeping in touch days’ you should contact your Manager.

Transfer of Adoption leave to Shared parental leave

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. The employee can request to take shared parental leave in one continuous block (in which case the organisation is required to accept the request as long as the employee meets the eligibility and notice requirements), or as a number of separate blocks of leave (in which case the employee needs the organisation's agreement).

To be able to take shared parental leave, an employee and his/her partner must meet various eligibility requirements and have complied with the relevant curtailment, notice and evidence requirements. This includes the adopter curtailing his or her adoption leave.

Employees can refer to the organisation's policy on shared parental leave, where they will find full details of the eligibility requirements, as well as instructions as to how the adopter's adoption leave can be curtailed.

Surrogate Parents

Provided you meet the eligibility criteria parents who have a child through surrogacy will be permitted to take ordinary paternity leave and pay, adoption leave and pay and shared parental leave and pay.

Both parents will also be entitled to take unpaid time off to attend two antenatal appointments with the woman carrying the child.