School staff - what am I entitled to?aaargh!

[flowergirl13]

Hi
I'm getting frustrated as I cannot find out what I'm looking for. I don't want to ask work colleagues or get in touch with HR yet as I don't want people to know we're actively TTC.

I work as a TA in a school and have worked for the same school and council for over 7 years. I just want to know what maternity leave/pay will I get? I've tried searching for advice on a local government service document but cannot find anything out.

If you work in a school what maternity leave/pay did you or will you get? Full pay? Half pay? 9/10 pay?

You'll usually find guidelines on what your employer will offer in terms of maternity pay in either your contract of employment or employee handbook

@wannabebump thank you for your reply...I've been reading my contract this morning and that is what it says to refer to in regards to the Maternity Scheme the local government service document.
I don't understand it, I feel like I just need someone to say: you get this much time off at this much pay.

www.gov.uk/maternity-pay-leave/pay

Aren’t you the same as council staff? Email HR and ask them for confirmation, they’re not going to tell the school.
We are 6 months full pay, 6 months half pay, then unpaid (I think) I’m not sure if that’s sick leave actually... I think maternity pay decreases in increments. I had a year off and the last 3 months were unpaid. The HR policy should be on the intranet.

I think it's usual for school support staff to follow the 'green book' (here) but you will need to contact the local authority to check, I'm afraid.

@Suzi888

Aren’t you the same as council staff? Email HR and ask them for confirmation, they’re not going to tell the school. We are 6 months full pay, 6 months half pay, then unpaid (I think) I’m not sure if that’s sick leave actually... I think maternity pay decreases in increments. I had a year off and the last 3 months were unpaid. The HR policy should be on the intranet.

That adds up to more than a year! That's an incredibly generous scheme and I'm afraid it's highly unlikely that OP will be entitled to it. It's considerably more generous than the teachers' maternity package.

It varies depending on your local authority. I'm a TA in the north east and this is what I will get.

@imisscoffee thank you for uploading that so will you qualify for OMP or is that just teaching staff? Will you get the SMP option?

@flowergirl13I'll get OMP, the doc is actually from my friend at work (also a TA) who has just gone on maternity, she said that we get 80% wage not 90% as we're TAs but I haven't seen this in writing. I haven't had anything about my own pregnancy yet as I'm only 13 weeks.

@imisscoffee I've emailed my HR today and asked so I will let you know what response I get.