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Working and parenting can be difficult commitments to juggle. According to the Office for National Statistics 80% of married or cohabiting mothers with dependent children are in work, 92% of married or cohabiting fathers and 65% of lone parents. Each employer will have different policies to support parents to manage work and home life, but there are some rights at work that every employed parent has.
Rights when you’re pregnant
Pregnancy is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010. This means that it is illegal for employers to discriminate or victimise you on the basis of your being pregnant.
Attend appointments
While you are pregnant you have the right to attend antenatal appointments without losing any pay or having to make back the time. You should give your line manager notice of these appointments as soon as you can, especially if they’ll need to change a rota.
Your partner has the right to attend these appointments with you, but unpaid.
Reasonable adjustments
You have the right to adjustments to make sure that you are safe at work during pregnancy.
Employers should assess any potential risks to your health and safety as you carry out your tasks. They should make adjustments accordingly such a giving certain tasks to somebody else, allowing you to sit instead of standing, having more breaks or easier access to a toilet.
IVF
Under the Equality Act 2010, pregnancy and maternity are protected characteristics. This still applies if you get pregnant through IVF, and with this your ‘protection’ starts from the date of your embryo transfer. It continues if the transfer is successful, or for two weeks after finding out that the transfer wasn’t successful.
There’s no statutory right to time off for your IVF appointments. Your own employer may allow you to take the time off, paid or unpaid, or work flexibly.
Parents’ rights to leave from work
Maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave
Maternity, paternity, shared parental and adoption leave are all available to allow you to care for your new baby.
There is statutory pay for each of these, but only up to 39 weeks. For maternity or shared parental leave, if you choose to use the full 52 weeks of leave, 13 of these will be unpaid.
Below is the statutory leave and pay. Your employer may offer more generous pay but this is the legal minimum.
| Rates 2025/26 | Maternity | Paternity | Shared Parental | Adoption |
| Statutory pay | First 6 weeks: 90% of your usual gross earnings Week 7 – 39: £187.18 a week or 90% of your usual gross earnings, whichever is lower | £187.18 a week or 90% of your usual gross earnings, whichever is lower | £187.18 a week or 90% of your usual gross earnings, whichever is lower | First 6 weeks: 90% of your usual gross earnings Week 7 – 39: £187.18 a week or 90% of your usual gross earnings, whichever is lower |
| Statutory leave | 52 weeks | 2 weeks | 50 weeks shared between both parents (this can be in addition to 2 weeks’ maternity leave) | 52 weeks |
Your employer cannot discriminate against you on the basis of your having taken maternity leave. You should still get the same opportunities for career progression and pay rises as you would have had you not gone on maternity leave.
Emergency leave for parents
Emergency leave can be granted if somebody who is dependent on you for care needs emergency care or support.
Scenarios might include:
- Your child’s nursery phones and says they are ill and need to go home
- Your childcare pulls out at the last minute
- You need to take a vulnerable family member to hospital
- Your child is sent home from school for any reason
Emergency leave is for if your child is ill or their childcare pulls out last minute. You can’t use it if you knew in advance that this would happen.
Parental leave
Parents’ rights at work include parental leave. This is unpaid leave to look after your child. The maximum unpaid leave you can take is four weeks in a year per child and up to 18 weeks in total up to when the child is 18 (this does not restart if you change jobs). These must be taken in week-long blocks.
Your employer may allow you more time at once.
Neonatal care leave for new parents
If your child needs neonatal care in hospital after birth, you can take that time off as neonatal leave. You can have up to 12 weeks neonatal leave, in addition to maternity, paternity and shared parental leave.
Statutory neonatal pay is the same rate as maternity and paternity pay.
Bereavement leave for parents including after a miscarriage
In the event that your child dies, you can take up to two weeks of bereavement leave. These two weeks can be taken together or as two separate weeks. This came into force in April 2020, following campaigning by Lucy Herd, who tragically lost her son Jack, aged two, in 2010.
You are eligible for this leave if you child is under 18 when they die, or born stillborn after 24 weeks of pregnancy. There is a planned change in the law underway to allow parents to take bereavement leave if they lose a child at any point during pregnancy.
Statutory bereavement pay is the same rate as maternity and paternity pay.
Parents’ right to request flexible work hours
The Flexible Working Act came into effect in April 2024. Under this law, employees have the right to request flexible working. This can include a working pattern that helps you with caring for your child/children, such as working part-time, working from home or working only during term time.
You can request flexible working twice a year. Your employer must have valid reason for turning down your request and speak to you about it.
Right to express breast milk
If you are breastfeeding, your employer must support you to continue to do so.
They should provide somewhere, safe, clean and private to pump milk and somewhere to store it. This place cannot be a toilet.
You may be given breaks for this or work meanwhile, depending on your job.
Legal advice about your rights
Working Families is a charity that runs a free helpline for parents and carers. The helpline, part of their Legal Advice Service, offers individual advice about leave, pay, discrimination, flexible working, in-work benefits and childcare.
Jane van Zyl, CEO of Working Families, said:
“Behind every query is a parent or carer trying to hold on to their job while caring for someone they love. For too many families, especially single parents and those on the lowest incomes, getting the right legal advice, quickly, can mean the difference between staying in work or falling out of the workforce entirely.
“The demand for our Legal Advice Service shows how vital it is that working families can access accurate, timely, and free legal information, whether through a one-to-one conversation or through our online resources. But the scale of need also highlights the continued pressure on families, and the critical importance of rights being understood, upheld, and enforced.”
To use this service, you can fill in the Working Families enquiry form and state whether you would like to be advised via email or telephone.
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