School staff adoption leave/ pay

[Nel81]

Hi, any adopters out there who work in schools, term time contracts? I found out today that 'my' child won't be coming home to me until end of July/August, despite matching panel being next month. Was wondering if I'd be able to start leave/pay from Sept 1st or does it have to start the day they come home? I've looked online but can only see that you can't start it until 14 days before but there's nothing I can see about starting it later. Has anybody been in the same situation please?

I don’t know if it’s strictly speaking the law, but I did this last year - we did intros during the summer hols and they moved in middle/late august. I told my school ny leave would start on 1st of sept (which was an inset day). Nobody questioned it. I don’t think it’s like pregnancy where you have to start it on the day baby is born… I chose - so sure you will be able to!

I know you have 28 days once you have received the matching certificate to tell them you are going… but obviously I would do it as soon as you have it but just tell them 1st of Sept!

I work in the public sector and recently asked this as I wanted to extend my paid leave by using up all my annual leave at the start then starting adoption leave after, but I was told adoption leave had to start on the day the child was placed in our care.

You could always ask for the matching cert to say the 1st of sept….

There can also be delays in the intros process so you may find that your child actually comes home more towards the middle to end of august so the timing might be ok.

I’m a teacher - I was told that my leave could either start on the day intros started or the day they moved in. We chose the later as we did intros over Easter.

The risk of not starting when they move in is technically you’d still be classed as working. I don’t know if you’re a teacher or your job role but that would mean, for me, being responsible for answering emails, still being expected to complete the summer holiday jobs etc. I’d just really double check everything so you didn’t end up in a situation where work are annoyed and you have this brand new LO at home!

Thank you all for taking the time to answer. I'm a TA in a primary so no responsibilities over the holidays. My social worker is on annual leave atm so I'll ask her next time I speak to her. I was expecting (hoping) that they'd be home by May/June but got thrown when she said it wouldn't be until the summer, when I'd be home anyway.

You can put the 1st of September.
Our inductions started in Easter but I put that I would be on leave on the 19th April - the day we started back after Easter holidays. (I work in a school too)

Thanks for asking this! This is something I have been wondering too. Me and my partner are hoping to start the adoption process soon.

I also put my adoption leave down to start after the Easter holidays and I went back just before the summer holidays. Best term of my life.

Thanks everyone. Also, i'm planning on taking a year's adoption leave but if the date of placement falls during August, would i need to go back to school in July in order to be paid for August? If so, how many weeks/days would i need to work in July? If i don't go back until Sept, my leave will go over the year. Any experience of this? Thanks x

Your entitlement to paid annual leave is separate to your entitlement to adoption leave. You are entitled to both and you should still accrue annual leave when you are on adoption leave. My experience of taking adoption leave is in a private organisation, not a school, but the principle and legality should be the same, although you won't have had the opportunity to stack up leave in the way that I did. I went off in October and had taken very little annual leave that year, so I carried over that annual leave to the following year. I took a full year off: part of the year on full pay, part on statutory adoption pay and part on no pay. So I would be due to return in October, but at that point I took the annual leave from the year I left, followed by the annual leave for the year I was coming back in. This meant the period from October until almost Christmas I was still off and on full pay. I think it's quite common for people on maternity and adoption leave to take a full year and then tag a chunk of paid annual leave on at the end.