Family-friendly Leave Policy

Maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental, neonatal, bereavement, carer’s and parental leave in one up-to-date policy.

Editable Word document
16
10pages
Guidance notes included
aml consultancy solutions

People & HR

Family-friendly Leave Policy

About this document

What it’s for

A single, comprehensive policy covering every statutory family-related leave right in Great Britain: maternity, paternity (including bereaved partner’s paternity leave), adoption and surrogacy, shared parental, neonatal care, parental bereavement, unpaid parental leave, carer’s leave, time off for dependants and antenatal appointments.

When to use it

  • Adopt it for all employees and refer to it in contracts and your handbook
  • Use it whenever an employee tells you they are pregnant, adopting, caring or bereaved

What’s inside

The document is laid out in the sections below. Each one comes with a plain-English guidance note explaining what it does and what to change.

  1. Purpose
  2. Scope
  3. Definitions
  4. General principles and protection
  5. Time off for antenatal and adoption appointments
  6. Maternity leave
  7. Statutory Maternity Pay and company maternity pay
  8. Health and safety for new and expectant mothers
  9. Keeping in touch days
  10. Returning to work
  11. Paternity leave and pay
  12. Bereaved partner’s paternity leave
  13. Adoption and surrogacy leave and pay
  14. Shared parental leave and pay
  15. Neonatal care leave and pay
  16. Parental bereavement leave and pay
  17. Unpaid parental leave
  18. Carer’s leave
  19. Time off for dependants
  20. Records and data protection
  21. Training, monitoring and review
  22. Related documents

How to complete it

  • Decide whether to offer enhanced (company) pay – options are given for each type of leave
  • Insert the current statutory pay rates and lower earnings limit from gov.uk each April
  • Name the contact who handles family leave
  • Use Appendix A as a quick reference for managers

Key points to check

  • Since 6 April 2026 paternity leave and unpaid parental leave are day-one rights, and bereaved partner’s paternity leave exists
  • A new right to bereavement leave (including pregnancy loss) is expected in 2027 – check gov.uk

Our templates are professionally structured starting points for UK businesses, not legal advice. For anything complex, unusual or high-value, have your final version checked by a solicitor.

Included in the pack

People & HR

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Editable Microsoft Word files

Guidance notes in every document

Written for UK businesses

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