Just wondering what's normal in other jobs, on the back of something I've read elsewhere and a colleague who is currently being adversely affected by Ts and Cs they had presumed were written one way, but turned out to be another.
Teachers used to have very well-defined Terms and Conditions, which included defined working days (195 of those, and a defined amount of directed hours within them), details on pay progression, pension, sick pay, maternity and paternity leave, leave of absence, notice periods and pay for things like interviews, medical appointments, ill children, pay portability and so on.
Thus, interviews and changing schools was historically straight-forward, you accepted the job offer on the day of the interview, knowing exactly what your working T&Cs would be, and a contract would arrive within the first 2 months of you having started the job.
These days, it is still expected that teachers accept the job offer on the day, and contracts still take a long while to arrive (usually well after the deadline by which you would have had to hand in your notice in your current school). The job application pack states some working conditions, like your expected role, but never includes information on full T&Cs, and those are not provided on interview, either. You now typically negotiate pay, but it would be seen as incredibly odd if you tried to discuss all of the above at interview (and if you asked about leave of absence conditions I doubt it'd work in your favour).
But T&Cs are now up to individual schools and MATs. Thus, you are expected to accept a job offer and hand in your notice at your current school pretty blind to what your new working conditions are actually going to be. If you refuse to accept until you have seen your full contract and policies, the job offer will go to another candidate.
A fair few people are now being stung by this. A colleague found out that mat leave was SMP only. Another went to interview elsewhere and found out they lost pay as interview days were not counted as paid leave. Another needed to be off sick for 3 months after an operation only to find out that 2 of them were SSP only.
So I'm interested. How does it work in other sectors? Do you know your full T&Cs before you accept a job offer? How long do you have to decide between a job offer and the deadline? Do you get a contract before you accept a job, and before you can hand in your notice?