Acknowledgement of notification of adoption leave letter

You must formally respond in writing to an employee who has notified an intention to take adoption leave. If you fail to do so, you can’t complain if the employee then returns early from adoption leave without letting you know in advance.

Formal acknowledgement

Once an employee formally notifies you that they are proposing to take adoption leave, you then have 28 days to respond to their notification of their leave plans. You need to write to the employee, setting out the date on which you expect them to return to work if full entitlement to adoption leave is taken. Use the Acknowledgement of Notification of Adoption Leave Letter for this purpose. It also covers the legal position regarding returning to work early, i.e. before the end of additional adoption leave. Your employee does not have to give notice to you if they intend to return to work immediately after the end of additional adoption leave. They can simply present themselves for work on their due day of return. However, if they want to return early, they have to give you eight weeks’ notice.

Failure to acknowledge

If you fail to provide a written response to the employee within 28 days of notification of their adoption leave plans, you won’t be able to prevent them from returning to work earlier than the end of their additional adoption leave.