Nursery World - Bereaved parents will be entitled to two weeks' paid leave

Parents who lose a child under the age of 18 will be entitled to two weeks’ paid bereavement leave from work, the Government has announced.

Jack Herd, who drowned at 23 weeks. Jack's mother Lucy campaigned for the new law in his memory - Photo from Lucy Herd @jacks_rainbow

According to business secretary Andrea Leadsom, who made the announcement today, the new legal right, coming into force from April, is a world first.

The Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay Regulations will be known as Jack’s Law in memory of Jack Herd who drowned in 2010 at the age of 23 months.

Under the new law, which Jack’s mother Lucy campaigned for, all employed parents who lose a child, or suffer a stillbirth from 24 weeks of pregnancy, will be entitled to two weeks’ statutory leave, irrespective of how long they have worked for their employer.

How it will work

Parents will be able to take the leave as either a single block of two weeks, or as two separate blocks of one week each taken at different times across the first year after their child’s death.

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