Policy Statement

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) is committed to supporting our staff who are parents and to promoting a healthy work-life balance. We recognise and respect the right of our staff to a family life.
We will treat you fairly, equally and supportively and consider your application in line with the policy.

Paternity leave is available for you to take time off to care for your child or support the child’s mother. You may only use it for this purpose.

Aims

The aims of this policy are to:

• Give you a clear understanding of paternity leave.
• Explain the procedure you need to follow if you want to make an application for paternity leave.

Scope

This policy applies to all Police Staff and Police Officers.

It applies to you if you’ll be supporting the mother or the Primary Adopter of a child, including for those parents in a surrogacy situation or when looking after children as part of a “fostering to adopt” arrangement.

Where we refer to ‘staff’ in this policy, it also applies to officers unless we say otherwise.

Terms and Definitions

Paternity Leave

A period of two weeks leave, which must be taken in whole weeks, but can be taken as two separate periods of one week, or one consecutive period of two weeks. The leave is taken to care for the child or support the child’s mother/Primary Adopter.

Primary Adopter

The child’s adopter who is taking adoption leave.

Week

A continuous period of 7 calendar days, from Sunday to Saturday.

The Qualifying Date

• The end of the 15th Week before the start of the Week in which the child is due, or
• The end of the Week in which the Primary Adopter is notified of the child being matched for adoption (adoption with the UK), or
• the date the child enters Great Britain for the purposes of adoption (adoption from overseas).

Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP)

The amount of money set by the government paid to partners who qualify during paternity leave. You can find out the current amount on the direct.gov.uk website

Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP)

The amount of money set by the government paid to mothers who qualify during maternity leave. You can find out the current amount on the direct.gov.uk website.

Maternity Allowance (MA)

The amount a mother can claim through Jobcentre Plus, if she doesn’t qualify for SMP. You can find out more on the direct.gov.uk website.

Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP)

The amount of money set by the government paid to Primary Adopters who qualify during adoption leave. You can find out the current amount on the direct.gov.uk website.

Shared Parental Leave (SPL)

Shared Parental leave that can be taken to share the care of a child. For more information, please refer to the Shared Parental Leave Policy.

Statutory Shared Parental Pay (ShPP)

The amount of money set by the government paid to mothers or adopters or the father/partner who’ll qualify. You can find out the current amount on the direct.gov.uk website.

Neonatal Care

Medical care received in a hospital or, following hospital discharge, in another place where the child remains under consultant-directed care given by health professionals, including palliative or end-of-life care.

Roles & Responsibilities

Responsibility of Strategic Resourcing Branch

The Head of Strategic Policy & People Relations is responsible for developing a Paternity Leave Policy that supports the work-life balance of our staff and meets legal requirements.

Responsibility of Greater Manchester Shared Services

Greater Manchester Shared Services (GMSS) are responsible for processing applications for paternity leave and advising managers where necessary.

Responsibility of Managers

Managers are responsible for treating staff sensitively, fairly and in line with this policy. They should make sure that all approved leave is properly recorded.

Responsibility of Staff

You should follow the procedure for submitting requests for paternity leave and make sure you give us as much notice as possible.

Principles

Entitlement

You can apply for paternity leave if:

• you have, or expect to have, responsibility for the child's upbringing,
• you’re the biological father of the child, or the mother's/Primary Adopter’s spouse, civil partner or co-habiting partner.
• your baby is still-born from 24 weeks of pregnancy
• if your baby is born alive at any point during the pregnancy

More than one child

If more than one child is born as a result of one pregnancy you’re not allowed extra paternity leave.

If you’re eligible for SPP and a second child is placed with you, under a separate adoption matching certificate; this is classed as a separate arrangement. You will be entitled to paternity leave and SPP from the date the second child is placed with you. When your second period of paternity leave starts, your first period of paternity leave will end.

How to take Paternity Leave

You can start your paternity leave on any day (but not before the baby is born or placed for adoption).

However, your leave must be completed:

• within 52 weeks of the actual date of birth of the child, or
• if the child is born early, within 52 weeks of the first day of the week in which the birth was expected, or
• within 52 weeks of the child being placed with the adopter, in the case of a UK adoption, or
• within 52 weeks of the child arriving in Great Britain, in the case of an overseas adoption.

Paternity Leave Pay

We’ll pay you full pay for both weeks of paternity leave.

Pensions

Your pension contributions will continue whilst we’re paying you paternity pay.

Reckonable Service (Police Officers)

Your paternity leave counts:

• as service in your rank for the purposes of incremental pay and relevant service,
• for part of any period of probation, and
• for annual leave purposes.

Your Contract of Employment (Police Staff)

If you take paternity leave under this policy, it won’t change your contract of employment. Paternity leave will also count as service for the purposes of pay increments and redundancy pay.

Neonatal care

If your baby receives neonatal care for more than seven continuous days before they reach 28 days old (counted from the day after the neonatal care started), you may be eligible for neonatal care leave. Please see the Neonatal Care Policy for more details.

Miscarriage or Stillbirth

In the sad event of your partner having a miscarriage you will be eligible for special leave; after a stillbirth or death shortly after birth, you will be eligible for paternity leave and pay and parental bereavement leave. Further details are available in the Pregnancy Loss Policy.

Court Attendance

The court may need you to attend whilst on paternity leave. However, you can give details of your paternity leave on the court availability sheets.

If you attend court, you can claim travel and other expenses back, as long as you provide receipts in the normal way.

Right to Return to Work – Police Staff

If you come back to work after paternity leave, you’re entitled to return to the same job on the same terms and conditions as if you’d not been on paternity leave.

In exceptional circumstances, for example redundancy, we might not be able to give you the same job back. If this happens, we’ll offer you another job where there is a vacancy, as long as:

• it’s suitable for you, and
• the work, location and your terms and conditions aren’t substantially less favourable than your old job.

Annual Leave and Bank Holidays

Annual leave and bank holidays accrue during paternity leave.

Procedure

When to Apply

Make your application as soon as possible. This should be:

• before the qualifying date, or
• in the case of adoption, within seven days of being told that you’ve been matched with a child for adoption,

unless this isn’t reasonably possible.

How to Apply

You should be prepared to show evidence to support your request for leave if your manager asks for it.

Complete a Paternity Leave Application Form and send it to your manager, who will complete their section and forward it to Greater Manchester Shared Services (GMSS).

You’ll need to tell your manager:

• the week the baby is due,
• whether you wish to take two weeks consecutive leave or two separate blocks of one week, and
• when you want your leave to start and finish for each period of your paternity leave

We understand that the exact timing of your leave may be difficult to predict. However you should still agree the dates with your manager. You can agree to change the dates with your manager later if necessary, but you must inform GMSS of any changes.

N.B. If you intend to link your paternity leave to shared parental leave, please ensure you confirm this in writing when submitting an application.

Appeal Rights

If you’re not satisfied with the application of this policy, you should raise the matter with your manager first. If you’re still not satisfied, you can raise a grievance under the ‘Fairness at Work Policy’.

Change in circumstances

If any of the following change in circumstances apply,:-

• you are notified that the child will no longer be placed with the person with whom the child was to be placed for adoption, or
• the child dies, or
• the child is returned after being placed for adoption,

then you will still be entitled to paternity leave. However, you must take it within 8 weeks of the end of the week in which the relevant event occurred, unless you’ve already given us 28 days notice for the leave.