As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly create a shared parental leave policy for your UK staff.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   Someone with a licence or accountable authority has to sign this before it counts.

2. Use a tool built for this

   Second choice

3. Do it yourself

   The distant third

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 1 hour until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open the current Shared Parental Leave and Pay guidance on GOV.UK and save the page link for the HR check.
   2. Gather your current maternity, paternity, adoption, family leave, flexible working, absence, benefits and grievance policies, plus any relevant contracts or collective terms.
   3. Write down your organisation's choices, including enhanced pay, benefits during leave, notification contacts, approval routes, HR systems, manager responsibilities and policy owner.
   4. Paste the documents, choices and organisation details into the prompt, then ask the chatbot to produce the policy and the separate verification list.
   5. Compare every legal statement and deadline in the draft with the current GOV.UK guidance, and compare every workplace term with your contracts and existing policies.
   6. Send the draft, source documents, GOV.UK link and unresolved-issues list to an employment solicitor or suitably qualified HR specialist, then record their amendments and approval before publishing it.

   Prompt

   Draft a UK shared parental leave policy for [organisation name], for inclusion in our staff handbook.
   
   Use only the facts and workplace choices I provide below. Do not invent benefits, contractual terms, eligibility rules, deadlines or examples. Where the information is missing, write [TO CONFIRM] and list the decision or fact needed.
   
   First, use current GOV.UK guidance on Shared Parental Leave and Pay as the legal reference point. State clearly which parts are legal requirements and which parts are our organisation's policy choices. Do not rely on memory for current rules, and flag anything that needs checking against current official guidance.
   
   The policy must cover:
   - purpose and scope
   - key terms in plain English
   - eligibility and entitlement, without changing the legal rules
   - how employees notify us and request leave
   - continuous and discontinuous leave requests, if applicable
   - notice, evidence and record-keeping requirements
   - how we will respond to requests
   - pay and benefits, using only the terms supplied below
   - annual leave, contact during leave and return to work
   - flexible working or other related requests, without giving separate legal advice
   - protection from detriment and how employees can raise concerns
   - a short process for managers and HR
   - policy owner, approval date, review date and version number, using [TO CONFIRM] where absent
   
   Use plain British English, headings, short paragraphs and tables only where they improve clarity. Make the policy usable by employees and managers, not written as a legal memo. Add a final section called 'Points for HR or an employment solicitor to verify' containing every unresolved legal or factual issue. This is not professional advice, so do not present the draft as ready for adoption until it has been checked.
   
   Organisation details and existing documents:
   [Paste current family leave, maternity, paternity, adoption, flexible working, benefits, absence and grievance policies here]
   
   Our workplace choices and terms:
   [Paste enhanced pay, benefits treatment, notice process, contacts, approval routes, systems and any collective or contractual terms here]
   
   Organisation name: [organisation name]
   Policy owner: [name or role]
   Intended audience: [all staff or other scope]
   Proposed version and review details: [details or leave blank]

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.