The Employment Rights Act 2025 makes Paternity Leave and Unpaid Parental Leave a “day one” right for all employees. This is subject to them providing their employer with the correct notice. As a result, an employee may give notice to take leave from their first day in a new job.
The day one right to Paternity Leave will be available to parents with an Expected Week of Childbirth (EWC) on or after 5th April 2026, born on or after 6th April 2026, or children placed for adoption on or after 6 April 2026.
To support families, the Government is introducing a transition period for newly eligible parents taking Paternity Leave, temporarily shortening the initial notice period to 28 days instead of 15 weeks, so that they can take Paternity Leave from 6th April 2026 (the first day of the new law). Newly eligible parents will be able to give notice of their intention to take leave from 18th February 2026 to 25th July 2026. However, employees still need to give 28 days’ notice of when they want their leave to start if they want to take 1 or 2 weeks’ leave. Whilst Paternity Leave will become a day-one right, Statutory Paternity Pay will not. The 26-week qualifying period for Paternity Pay remains the same.
From 6th April 2026 onwards, parents will have a day one entitlement to take Unpaid Parental Leave. At present, parents must have completed one year of employment to qualify. The requirement to give at least 21 days’ notice before taking unpaid parental leave remains for all eligible parents, including those who now become eligible from day one. The new legislation also removes the restriction on taking Paternity Leave and Pay after taking Shared Parental Leave and Pay. This will provide further flexibility for employees to take advantage of the different types of leave available to them to care for their child.
Currently, to be eligible for Paternity Leave, an employee must work for their employer for 26 weeks before they are eligible, and for a year before they are eligible for Unpaid Parental Leave. This means, at present, parents would not receive these entitlements immediately if they leave their job to work for another employer.
At present, the law does not allow for Paternity Leave and Pay to be taken after Shared Parental Leave and Pay, which risks fathers and partners losing their right to Paternity Leave and Pay. The changes introduced by the new legislation increase flexibility in how parents choose to take their leave.
HPC can support with the changes in legislation and guide you through the process of ensuring that the new rules are followed and documentation is compliant. We can review handbooks, contracts, and policies to ensure that they are up to date.
All HPC clients will receive updates as the changes happen, but in the meantime, should you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact the HPC team for further information.
To find out more information or to discuss this new day 1 right to paternity and parental leave, get in contact with our team of experts.
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