All employees who have one year's continuous service with their employer and who have or expect to have responsibility for a child are entitled to 13 weeks' unpaid Parental Leave to care for the child. This is not to be confused with paternity leave.

Employees are entitled to 13 weeks per child. As long as the correct notice is given an employee is able to take parental leave up to the child's fifth birthday. If a child is disabled then employees are entitled to 18 weeks parental leave and able to take this leave up to the child's eighteenth birthday.

To take parental leave, 21 days notice should be given by the employee to the employer. Leave should be taken in blocks of one week, unless the child is disabled and blocks of one day will be allowed. In all cases a maximum of four weeks parental leave can be taken within a year for each child. An employer can postpone the leave for up to six months where the business would be particularly disrupted if the leave is taken at the requested time.

An employer cannot postpone the leave if the employee gives notice to take it immediately after the child is born or placed with the family for adoption.

All employees are allowed unpaid leave in case of emergency involving a dependant. A dependant is defined as a child, spouse, parent etc. There has been a recent development in this area of law in the form of the Maternity and Parental Leave etc and the Paternity and Adoption Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2006. This new piece of legislation only affects employees whose expected week of childbirth begins on or after the 1st April 2007.