In 2022, approximately 3,500 children in the UK were adopted – out of roughly 700,000 babies born in the country during the same year.

Most employers are well-versed in supporting employees taking maternity or paternity leave, but tend to be less experienced dealing with shared parental leave and/or adoption leave. Nevertheless, they have a duty to support adoptive parents.

Speaking from my own recent experience, the adoption journey is long, emotional, thorough, and can at times feel intrusive. Each local authority and adoption agency will have a different process but typically it will involve a preparation stage, an assessment stage and, if approved after that, a matching process whereby children are linked with prospective adopters. All that before the children move in, followed by the court process that sees parental rights and responsibilities transferred.

It’s essential employers understand the process, how best to support individuals going through it (at all stages) and the specific challenges adoptive parents face.

Jamie Meechan is an associate, Burness Paull

In terms of family leave, adoptive parents have the same rights as birth parents. Adoption leave may be undertaken by single people, married couples, civil partners, and unmarried couples. Couples must elect which of them is “the adopter” for the purposes of adoption leave. Their partner or spouse may then be entitled to paternity leave and pay.

Adoptive parents can also make use of shared parental leave rules (which effectively allow parents to share statutory adoption leave and pay) in the same way as birth parents.. They can take shared parental leave at the same time as each other or separately. Statutory pay for these types of leave are the same as for maternity/paternity leave and can be easily found on the government’s website.

In addition, single adopters (or the elected “adopter” in a couple) are entitled to paid time off for up to five adoption appointments. Employees adopting jointly can elect for the other parent to take up to two unpaid days off for adoption appointments. An adoption appointment takes place after an adoption agency notifies a prospective adopter that a child is, or is expected, to be placed with them. Many appointments take place before this stage, with no statutory entitlement to time off.

When it comes to LGBT+ adopters, employers should consider an employee’s wishes in relation to disclosure of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Any ‘outing’ of that (including when dealing with requests for family leave) may amount to discrimination or harassment. Family leave policies (indeed all policies) should be LGBT+ inclusive and gender neutral, including by recognising families with LGBT+ parents.

Statutory parental leave and confidentiality rules for adoptive parents are a legal right. However, employers can and should go further if they wish to be an employer of choice.

Understanding, flexibility and being led by the employee regarding what information they want to share with you and when, will go a long way. You may also wish to consider enhanced policies around paid leave, not restricting employees to the statutory minimum time off for adoption appointments, and holding internal awareness-raising sessions.

Employers should ensure relevant policies are not only legally compliant but up-to-date, fit for purpose and reflective of the type of employer they want to be. For example, if you provide full pay for a period if an employee is a birth parent, are you offering the same to adoptive parents?

Being a parent is hugely rewarding but full of challenges. Employers that get their approach to adoptive parents right will ultimately improve their recruitment and retention – reaping the long-term rewards.

Jamie Meechan is an associate, Burness Paull

Employers who support adoptive parents will reap long-term rewards - Jamie Meechan