Protected rights

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This guidance is intended to provide high-level information to help law firms draft internal policies. It is not intended as a guide to dealing with claims relating to protected rights, which is an employment law matter.

Parental and shared parental leave

Parents of a child (whether born to the parents or adopted) are entitled to take up to 18 weeks of unpaid leave (in respect of each child) to care for that child at any time before the child's 18th birthday. The leave may be taken by each parent. So, for example, where a mother and father both have responsibility for the twins, each of them is entitled to 36 weeks of leave to care for the two children. Parental leave may be taken at any time before the child's 18th birthday, irrespective of whether the child was born to the parents or adopted.

The right to shared parental leave allows, after birth, the mother of the child and a second person (who must be the father of child, or married to, or the civil partner of, or the partner of, that mother) to share (if they wish) up to 50

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