Overview
If you’re planning on adopting or having a child through a surrogacy, first of all, congratulations!
Although it’s called ‘adoption’ leave, you’re eligible for this leave type if you’re adopting a child, fostering to adopt, or having a child through surrogacy (and apply for a parental or adoption order within 6 months of the birth).
FYI - only one person in a couple can take adoption leave. The other person can take paternity leave, or you can share your leave by taking shared parental leave.
Taking adoption leave
Taking adoption leave is slightly different if you’re adopting or having a child through surrogacy.
Adoption
Surrogacy
Confirming your leave
We’ll confirm in writing the dates that your leave will start and end once we have all the information we need from you. As mentioned above, you can still change these dates with appropriate notice.
Pay during adoption leave
For non-GPs
You’re legally entitled to get statutory adoption pay (SAP) during your adoption leave, if you meet the eligibility requirements below.
More information can be found on the Gov.uk website.
For GPs
Salaried GPs get the following adoption pay, if you have been in >12 months’ continuous service with the NHS at the beginning of the 11th week before the EWC. If you have <12 months’ continuous service you get the same pay as non-GPs, subject to the eligibility requirements above.
Coming back to work
We’ll try to make coming back to work as easy as possible after your adoption leave!
If you’re thinking about changing your hours when you come back, you can find out more about it on our Flexible Working page. You might also want to consider taking Shared parental leave if that’s better for you and your partner.
KIT days
During your leave you can take up to 10 keeping in touch (KIT) days. These are days when you can come back to work without ending your leave (but they don’t extend your period of leave). KIT days have no impact on your entitlement to statutory pay.
It still counts as one of your full KIT days even if you only work for part of it, for example a half day. If you only work for part of a day, you will only be paid for the hours you work, not a full day.
At least 50% of your KIT day should be used to carry out your day-to-day duties, such as seeing patients if you’re a clinician or doing admin tasks. An appropriate amount of time will be allotted for other tasks you want to do on your KIT day, such as completing statutory training or catching-up with your Line Manager. The work you do on your KIT day should be agreed in advance with your Line Manager and the rota team.
How to: Arrange a KIT day
Fill in our KIT day request form with details of when you want to use your KIT day, and what you want to use it for.
Your Line Manager and the rota team will review your request and be in touch with you.
Once your KIT day has been approved, the rota team will add your KIT day to WhosOff for you.
NB. Please give at least 1 month notice.
Annual leave entitlement
Your annual leave entitlement will continue to accrue throughout your leave, i.e. though you’re not working during your leave, you are still entitled to take all of your annual leave from this period of time. For example, if you took the full 52 weeks of maternity leave, you would accrue 28 days of annual leave.
Annual leave accrued during your leave needs to be taken within the holiday year (1st Jan to 31st Dec) once you come back to work. Often people chose to take their annual leave in one go at the end of their leave (effectively extending their leave period), before they return to work.