{"id":2308,"date":"2026-03-27T18:38:41","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T18:38:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/key-hr-facts\/?p=2308"},"modified":"2026-04-06T23:01:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T22:01:27","slug":"adoption-leave-and-pay-statutory-entitlement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/key-hr-facts\/adoption-leave-and-pay-statutory-entitlement\/","title":{"rendered":"Adoption Leave and Pay\u00a0&#8211; Statutory Right ~\/"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>[Updated for 6th April 2026]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Eligibility<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>An individual must have 26 week\u2019s continuous service by the date your child is matched for adoption. Note that only one person in a couple can take adoption leave. The other partner may be eligible for paternity leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You will not be eligible for statutory adoption leave and pay if:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2013 You are adopting a stepchild or a family member;<br>\u2013 The adoption is a private arrangement;<br>\u2013 You will become a special guardian or kinship carer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Leave<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>26 weeks Ordinary Adoption Leave plus 26 weeks Additional Leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Within 7 days of you being matched, you must inform your employer when you wish to start your statutory adoption leave, overseas etc refer re conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The leave can be begin 14 days before the child starts to live with you (applies to adoptions in the UK only)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are eligible for Statutory Adoption Leave, you may also be entitled to time off with pay to attend <strong>up to 5 adoption appointments<\/strong> \u2013 when you have been matched with a child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Pay<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>From 6th April 2026, to qualify you will need to have earned gross pay of \u00a3127 or more per week for at least 8 weeks before the week in which you are matched for a child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Entitlement is up to to 39 weeks of statutory adoption pay as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2013 first 6 weeks = 90% of the individual\u2019s gross average weekly earnings;<br>\u2013 the following 33 weeks \u2013 whichever is the lower of \u00a3194.32 from 6th April 2026 (\u00a3187.18 2025\/6) or 90% of the individual\u2019s average weekly earnings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You will be required to provide proof of the adoption if your employer requests that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Payment starts from when you actually commence your leave \u2013 but see the special conditions if the adoption is via a surrogacy arrangement or overseas. The Government\u2019s guidance on those requirements can be seen <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/adoption-pay-leave\/eligibility\">at this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Updated for 6th April 2026] Eligibility An individual must have 26 week\u2019s continuous service by the date your child is matched for adoption. Note that only one person in a couple can take adoption leave. The other partner may be eligible for paternity leave. You will not be eligible for statutory adoption leave and pay [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adoption-leave-pay"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/key-hr-facts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/key-hr-facts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/key-hr-facts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/key-hr-facts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/key-hr-facts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2308"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/key-hr-facts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2424,"href":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/key-hr-facts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2308\/revisions\/2424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/key-hr-facts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/key-hr-facts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/key-hr-facts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}