Shared Parental Leave - partner is a teacher

[Orangepen13]

Hi,

SPL IS A HEADACHE

My partner is eligible for SPL (I am not, but am entitled to mat leave, enhanced pay and maternity allowance). I am going to curtail my maternity leave at 26 weeks to make space for his leave.

We’d really like to make use of it for my partner to take two blocks of leave

• 2 weeks between paternity leave and school xmas holidays
• 11 weeks at the end of the summer term

I have a few technical questions

• Will he have to go back to work for a day before xmas and summer hols to guarantee payment?
• Should he make 2 seperate requests for the 2 blocks, or can he make one request without it risking rejection?
• Is there a way he can be paid for the half term in summer term? Perhaps if he takes a block of SPL before the half term (and returns for a day?) and one block after?

Sorry, loads of question! SPL is complicated enough, let alone when you throw in school holidays!

Hi OP! My partner is a teacher too and I am in a very similar position (want husband to have 2 weeks SPL after paternity leave to run into Feb half term, then have a longer block at the end of summer hols next year).
I think a lot is at the discretion of the school and up for negotiation and the earlier you guys get these requests in, the more chance the school has to plan for it and the more unreasonable it would be for them to say no.
I think all of your requests sound reasonable but it may well be tricky for him to get paid for that summer half term if it's within an 11week block of SPL.
But if you don't ask, you don't get. So our approach is going to be aim high but be prepared to negotiate.

Thanks so much - it’s nice to hear of someone else trying this out too!
Do you know what is required with returning to work before the holidays start? Would they have to actually go to work for a day?
I can’t see anything about it in the policy

You don't need to go back a day before the holidays to get paid, you can just set your return date to be the first date of the holidays.

Also not sure the half term week will be paid and I think that's potentially taking the mick a bit. Worth a try I guess but I had my baby in May and obviously not long after all my teacher friends had 6 weeks off full pay but my maternity was ticking by.

Totally up to the discretion of the school.
I had to go back for a day to get paid for the 6 weeks

@Givemebackmylilo

Totally up to the discretion of the school. I had to go back for a day to get paid for the 6 weeks

My school said opposite to this 🤣 that you don't need to.

I didn't need to go back before the holidays to get pay but decided to. I didn't have any classes so got lots of planning done.
Asking for half term to be paid is massively taking the piss. How would you even have the guts to ask. It isn't going to garner good will with the head is it?

Thanks all - I’ll get him to speak with his HR!

Interesting to think about requesting annual leave be paid as taking the piss though - i hadn’t even considered that. In all other jobs (including mine), you accrue your annual leave and bank holidays to be taken after your year. In this case, surely it’s just an employee right to annual leave (because parental leave is not the same thing!)

I have a similar situation that we are looking at hubby taking 4 weeks at the end of my 39 weeks. We know his will be unpaid, but we decided it might be worth the hit... however, I am due back to work the week of May half term... it seems very unfair that he would have to take half term unpaid when he would usually be paid for that!!

I wouldn't think it's taking the piss either to have it paid if that's usually what would happen. My partners not a teacher but he gets 4 months full pay from his company for shared parental leave, and he is taking it. Why wouldn't you? We are also hoping to take it in blocks like you.
Worth checking though as a lot of companies I know are levelling up the maternity and paternity leave on the shared scheme, so he might be entitled to more full pay if any HR policies have been updated in the last year or two

It's taking the piss because it doesn't work like that in teaching. I can't fully explain but I'm really hoping someone else can. It's like saying a female teacher could take a year off then have an additional 13 weeks full pay..... teachers don't get that privilege. It's something to do with it not being 'holiday' as such, it's that we work 40 weeks a year with pay spread over 12 months.

You can't ask for annual leave/holiday pay because teacher contracts don't work like that. The best you can do is get paid for the holidays by taking blocks of SPL during term time only.

11 weeks, is that the whole of the term after Easter? If primary this would probably be workable but secondary schools wouldn't like this due to exam classes. I'm sure you've already thought of this but something to consider if you haven't.

@Russell19

It's taking the piss because it doesn't work like that in teaching. I can't fully explain but I'm really hoping someone else can. It's like saying a female teacher could take a year off then have an additional 13 weeks full pay..... teachers don't get that privilege. It's something to do with it not being 'holiday' as such, it's that we work 40 weeks a year with pay spread over 12 months.

This is right I believe. My husband is a teacher, and technically teachers don't get paid for the holidays, but their pay for term time is spread over 12 months so you get a paycheck in the holidays.

Just asked my husband and he said that yes, his contract is for 195 days, not 365 days with annual leave.

You really cant ask for "annual leave" on top as teachers don't get annual leave.

This is really interesting, I think it sounds more like an ethical dilemma because technically he can take 13 paid weeks (what I haven’t taken) over three separate periods - this is just SPL as far as I understand. It doesn’t make a difference that it’s teaching.
So he could request 2 weeks before xmas, 5 weeks before summer half term and 6 weeks after summer half term.

To play devils advocate, if he took 2 weeks at xmas, a 5 week block in the spring term and then a 6 week block in summer term, he’s be taking exactly the same amount of shared leave over the year but would get the full holiday entitlement because none of it would be spread over leave.

Personally, every week he gets paid is a week extra I can take of maternity leave, so there is no moral dilemma for me!

He could request it.... but doubt a school would grant that!

That leave pattern would make you very unpopular with school.

Does he definitely get 13 weeks full pay? Our school policy isn't this and nor is the burgundy book AFAIK.

Id imagine it needs taking in one go?

From my reading of what you have said, he will be entitled to SHPP and not full pay for 13 weeks. Do you mean the week of holiday pay for whit week will give you an extra week off?

I returned at 26 weeks and DP got SHPP for the 8 weeks he took. We didn't use the other weeks as we couldn't afford to.

They can’t not approve a request, he’s eligible and we’re given enough notice so it can’t be refused, as far as I understand

Yeah it would be at basic rate, but if he didn’t take the half term as shared leave that would be full pay (which means I could take a week unpaid or he could take one week less shared pay and I can have it instead)

My understanding was they can refuse to do it in broken up segments but cant refuse a lump ? I may be very wrong!

You’re right - but you get three requests. So you can request three lumps

They can't refuse. It would make him unpopular to be off during the exam period. Primary wouldn't be so bad as they could get cover for the term.

What does he want to do? I can imagine this being incredibly dusruptive to his classes. I wouldn't do this.