Our Parental Leave Handbook

You continue to accrue annual leave whilst on adoption leave and this must be taken in full prior to you return to work.

If you are on ordinary adoption leave (the first 26 weeks) on a Public Holiday, you will be granted a days’ leave in lieu of that Public Holiday. This only applies to public holidays that you would have normally been scheduled to work.

Options are available to you if you are a member of the Local Government Pension Scheme (Green Book and Control staff). You can choose to continue to pay contributions or opt out of the scheme before you start adoption leave. This will mean that you do not need to pay pension contributions during the paid part of your adoption leave. Pension contributions will cease during any period of unpaid additional adoption leave. Further information can be obtained from the Pension Provider or the Finance Team. Members of the Firefighters’ Pension Scheme should consult West Yorkshire Pension Fund for more specific details.

Adoption leave can start, on the date the child starts living with the employee or up to 14 days before the expected placement date (UK adoptions), when an employee has been matched with a child to be placed with them by a UK adoption agency, when the child arrives in the UK or within 28 days of this date (overseas adoptions) or on the day the child is born or the day after (parents in surrogacy arrangements).

If you are using a surrogate and you will become the legal parent at birth, you are not entitled to maternity leave so should refer to the adoption leave section. More information can be found here or within the policy.