Government announces adoption reforms
The Prime Minister, David Cameron, has announced a "new package of support for people who want to adopt", which will include a new right for adoptive parents to take time off work to meet the child they are set to adopt before the child moves in with them, and improvements to statutory adoption leave and pay.
The purpose of the right for adopters to take leave from work to meet the child before the adoption placement begins is to ensure that the child's transition to a new family is as smooth as possible. According to the Department for Education, primary adopters will be able to take paid leave for up to five appointments (each appointment may last up to 6.5 hours) while their adopting partner will be eligible to take unpaid leave for two appointments (in line with a new right for birth fathers to accompany their partner to ante-natal appointments, which was announced by the Government on 13 November 2012).
The Government has also confirmed that it will bring statutory adoption leave and pay in line with statutory maternity leave and pay. It will remove the requirement for an employee to have 26 weeks' continuous service to qualify for statutory adoption leave and make statutory adoption leave a "day-one right". Further, the Government will increase the first six weeks of statutory adoption pay to 90% of the employee's average weekly earnings to mirror statutory maternity pay provisions.
The Department of Education is considering how quickly it can make these improvements to statutory adoption leave and pay available to adoptive parents.
- New drive to help children find adoptive families Read the press release on the package of support announced by the Prime Minister on the Department for Education website.
- Greater Equality for a Stronger Economy The speech in which the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, announced improvements to statutory adoption leave and pay can be viewed on the Deputy Prime Minister website.
Also
Where a couple are adopting a child can they both take statutory adoption leave? The XpertHR FAQs section answers this and other frequently asked questions regarding adoption.
XpertHR model adoption leave policy (adoption within the UK) This model adoption leave policy can be used to guide managers and employees in relation to employees' entitlement to adoption leave and pay when adopting within the UK.
Adoption: Handle an adoption leave and pay request (UK adoption situation) Use this XpertHR flowchart when an employee informs you that he or she has been matched with a child for adoption.
