Shared Parental Leave question (esp. for teachers!)

[jezza1234]

Hi all,
Just wondering if anyone can offer some advice around shared parental leave?

Couple of questions:
I’m pregnant, and my partner and I will both be off for the first 6 weeks after birth; the first 2 weeks will be covered by paternity leave for my partner, but in terms of the next 4 weeks we’re planning for her to move to shared parental leave. I’m planning to curtail the end of my maternity leave to allow for this, but the question is - does she automatically become entitled to shared parental pay? We were working on the assumption that she would be unpaid because I am effectively donating time at the end of my mat leave which would be unpaid leave. Or is it the case that she’ll get statutory shared parental pay and I’ll need to give up some maternity pay at the end?

2. My partner is a teacher, and she wants to make sure that she can be paid for her half term holiday, which would fall during the shared parental leave period. Are there any protections for teachers in this case to allow her to get paid for this week? She’s also planning to take a further 2 blocks of leave later on - is she only allowed to request 3 blocks of leave, or can she split the early block in 2 to allow her to claim full pay for the holiday?

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer, and apologies for the complicated rambling!

I can answer the first part......
Your only entitled to shared parental pay if you both apply for it via your employers. As its at the beginning no this wouldn't necessarily be unpaid but it can take maternity pay off you so it's worth checking who does better for mat pay/shared parental leave pay. You can't use the full end of mat leave as this is unpaid the natural element of shared parental leave is that your number of weeks reduce but if both being paid because it's early days then this reduces the number of week you will receive maternity pay if that makes sense?

Can't answer the teacher part I'm afraid.

Hi - I'm currently in the process of sorting this out myself... it's a tricky/confusing situation and not one that most schools understand (frustratingly). I would recommend taking a look at this site (see below) as this may help!

teachersspl.wixsite.com/splforteachers/difficulty-with-employers

Brilliant thanks all 😁