NHS paternity leave

Two service tests, and they count different service

This is the part most guidance gets wrong. The NHS’s own full pay and the government’s statutory pay each have a service test, and they do not measure the same thing.

So someone who moved trust a few weeks ago can have full pay and no statutory pay at all: they pass the NHS test through their earlier NHS service, and fail the statutory one because it only counts time with the new employer. Paragraph 15.114 is the rule:

“Employees granted new parent support leave will receive full pay during this period if they have 12 months’ continuous service with their or any other NHS employer before they take their leave.”

Note that it makes its own rule rather than borrowing one. Paragraph 12.1 lists where earlier NHS service counts — redundancy, maternity, sick pay and annual leave — and paternity is not on that list. It does not need to be: 15.114 names “their or any other NHS employer” itself.

Full pay includes the statutory pay — it is not added to it

If you qualify for both, you do not get full pay plus £194.32. The statutory payment is part of your full pay, and your employer makes up the rest:

“The employee will receive full pay less any statutory paternity pay receivable.”

Full pay is worked out on the same average weekly earnings rules as occupational maternity pay (also 15.115).

Which case you are in

Paragraph 15.117: “Employees who are not eligible for the two weeks of pay during their new parent support leave may still be entitled to statutory paternity pay subject to meeting the qualifying conditions described in the relevant legislation.”

When you can take it

“All eligible employees are entitled to two weeks of new parent support leave which as a minimum can be split into two one-week blocks and can be taken at any time during the first year of the birth or the placement of the child for adoption.”

Twins or more do not double it: “Only one period of new parent support pay is ordinarily available when there is a multiple birth.” (15.116). And your employer can offer more than this — 15.112 lets NHS organisations agree “more favourable arrangements” locally, so check your own trust or board’s policy.

Northern Ireland’s statutory rules are narrower

Section 15 is one printing for the whole UK, and the handbook applies it in full to health and social care organisations in Northern Ireland. The statutory rules are a different matter, because paternity law is devolved:

For HSC staff the handbook’s terms — separate weeks, any time in the first year — are wider than the law, though the handbook sets no service test of its own for the leave. Where the statutory rules still bite is the statutory pay: if you are relying on it alone, nidirect says it is for one week or two consecutive weeks finishing within 56 days of the birth.

Scotland’s own policy

NHSScotland publishes a New Parent Support Policy under its Once for Scotland workforce policies. It gives the same two weeks and the same 12-month test for full pay, and adds one thing the handbook does not say:

“Bank staff have no entitlement to OPP. However, they may be entitled to SPP, depending on their level of earnings.”

Assumptions and what this page does not cover

• Agenda for Change staff. Doctors and dentists are on different contracts.
• Statutory pay at the 2026/27 rate, which changes every April.
• Adoption, surrogacy, shared parental leave and neonatal care leave have their own rules and are not worked out here.
• Paragraphs 15.107 to 15.110, which say which breaks between NHS jobs are ignored, are written for maternity, adoption and shared parental leave. The handbook does not say whether they apply to paternity pay; your employer decides.
• This is what the handbook and the statutory scheme say. Your employer applies them to your own service and pay.