Adoption Leave for Teachers

[TeachAdopt]

My husband and I are beginning the adoption process (by which I mean thinking about it a bit). We had a meeting a while ago and are thinking we might get started again soon. My husband is a teacher and he will be the "main adopter" and I'll get paternity pay.
His employment contract says to check another document for details of adoption leave. He checked that document and it said that the adoption leave information was "available upon request only". We're a bit reluctant to tell his employer that we're planning to adopt and that he'll be the main adopter because it could take years to be matched and think that a) it's massively oversharing personal information to tell them this early on and b) we think it will probably impact them allocating him TLRs or promotions.
Everything from the unions says that adoption pay is "discretionary". I was under the impression that it was something adoptive parents were legally entitled to just like how biological parents get maternity or paternity leave. But everything on paper says "may be entitled to* or "at the discretion of the school/trust/local authority".
He's been working there long enough and earns enough and all of those things - are teachers entitled to adoption leave/pay?

I’d echo the advice to pop over to the Adoption board - lots of very knowledgeable adopters.

In short statutory adoption leave and pay mirrors maternity benefits however if your husband’s employer offers enhanced maternity pay (usually referred to as Occupational Maternity Pay), it’s at their discretion to offer it to adopting parents. In saying that, I know a few people who have challenged their employees to offer the same benefits across adoption and maternity.

In practical terms your husband will need to get an employers reference, which happens pretty early in the process. His HR department have a duty to maintain confidentiality and shouldn’t share that information with anyone else. You’ll get very used to having to share personal information with lots of people through this process so try to find a measured way of coping with it.

I’d certainly wouldn’t be waiting until you’re matched with a child to tell employers - once you’re matched introductions tend to start quite quickly (we were 3 weeks from matching to me leaving work), apart from his employer needing notice, I assume he would want a slightly longer transition out of work.

Good luck with the process, it’s hard going but wholly worth it.

You could write admin asking fora copy of parental leave/adoption leave policy.

@Casschops Do not tell anyone until you have been matched we were approved for 12 months becore matching
@Jellycatspyjamas I’d certainly wouldn’t be waiting until you’re matched with a child to tell employers - once you’re matched introductions tend to start quite quickly
Haha, oops - not sure what to do now. I think we'll look into how quickly things are likely to proceed based on our circumstances and a reasonable time frame. We've already been delayed once due to issues with MIL so I think we're very cautious that the process will be quite slow for us.

As others have said, he will be entitled to the same statutory leave and pay as for paternity/ maternity leave. Being cynical I wonder if the academy actually have a policy... it's really bad form not to have it published and readily available, all policies should be. Your assessing adoption agency will ask for a reference from your employers anyway, and they will want to know you know what you are entitled to, so you can't keep it a total secret for long.

References,including employers, are done in stage one, which is the first two months. They'll want to be able to detail who is entitled to what leave and what your finances will be.

Sorry, last thing - how long it will take depends on how strong / attractive you are as adopters and what sort of child / children you want. There are more of some demographics "available"- for want of a much better word - than others. So it depends how wide your matching criteria is.

We too had to delay our assessment process, and I changed employer during the process too (and still accrued entitlement to adoption leave), so yes it can take a long time - I just asked HR to hold it confidentialy and told my line manager because I needed time off for meetings etc. It depends on your work place and your feelings around privacy how quickly you decide to tell - I think waiting til matching is too far for lots of very practical reasons but you and your DH will have a good sense of what’s right for you.

Matching post approval will really depend on whether you want one child or a sibling group, background and the health and disability needs you’re both able to support. The more restrictive your matching considerations, the longer the wait.

Haha, oops - not sure what to do now

I’ll settle it. Don’t tell your employers until you’re approved. Then when they ask when it’ll be happening, shrug and mutter something about how long’s a piece of string.

(Telling them before you’re approved would be akin to announcing you’re about to ttc.)

Adoption leave/pay is statutory, and equal to mat. Whether or not they offer enhanced is discretionary.

The time of the academic year will also be relevant to how much notice you would ideally give (e.g. if your partner needs to leave exam classes at short notice, mark coursework etc). But you'd have to cross that bridge when you come to it. I think you are right to be cautious, however. My DH and I were turned down as adopters after he had booked a series of days off work for the preparation days. It made an upsetting experience worse. I'm not surprised the school doesn't have an accessible policy. It's hard enough to find the maternity policy at most!

Thank you everyone for your responses - I've taken every single letter of your advice on board.
I was wondering whether it will be an issue that I'm not going to be entitled to adoption leave. My husband will be the one taking it anyway and I'll get two weeks paternity but I feel like they want a reference from my employer to state that they're happy for me to be adopting and taking a year off - which they aren't and I won't be.

An employee reference has absolutely nothing to do with adoption leave, however if they do write that please make sure the fact that they are willing to break the law is well publicised.

@SimonJT Thanks for your comment. Unfortunately, they wouldn't be breaking the law. I'm not in a standard professional situation and receive bursary income so there's no right to adoption leave. They allow for two week's paternity and four week's maternity leave but that's in my contract - it's not legally obliged.
It's very flexible and brilliant in a number of other ways but I have no entitlement to adoption leave at all. I worked for the same employer when we had our birth son (but under a different contract) so I took two week's unpaid leave then before I went back (luckily working from home for three months so I still had my baby with me).

If he knows someone that is planning to leave (and therefor not bothered), ask them to request the policy?

@EveryDayIsADuvetDay Thank you but I think if he's close enough to them for them to do this for him, then they're close enough for us to want to hold back from telling them just yet. It's a good suggestion though.

It shouldn’t be an issue which of you take adoption leave - no reason why the female would be primary carer. They’ll explore your work plans as part of the assessment process but that’s really about you understanding the need for flexibility in being able to meet any child’s needs, how that happens is much less an issue.

The employer reference is about confirmation that you are employed and that there aren’t any known issues that might preclude you adopting (eg particular discipline issues), they might ask about leave but that’s not the purpose of the reference.

@Jellycatspyjamas Thank you - that's very reassuring. We're just so ready for another child now, I feel a bit like everything is settled in our house and it's feeling a bit empty. I was devastated when weren't even allowed to apply before but they said to come back so that's what we're doing.

You'll probably need to tell employers fairly early anyway. There will be lots of interviews, workshops, training days etc that you will need time off to attend.

Good luck.