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!

Don't know if you're still following this but during the leave each partner is allowed to work 20 keeping in touch days. This might help get paid for the half term.

Looking into this for myself, the mother can take all the leave. Due 12th December, planning to end mat leave 4th July and with for 7 weeks over summer holidays then commence spl 22ND August until baby's first birthday. Hope I've got it all correct. It's quite complicated! Had my last baby in the month of June meaning I lost my summer pay. I had worked most of the year for it and if our pay is spread across 12 months it seems unfair not to get it when I had worked for it. So that's why I'm trying spl this time.

@Orangepen13 just stumbled across this thread! Did you sort the SPP in the end? From my brief reading looks like it is absolutely legal to request three blocks of SPL and you can indeed do this over the holidays.

I have just been having a nosey at www.teachersspl.co.uk which makes for interesting reading!

Just wondered how you got on in the end as I know we will definitely be looking into it (me being a teacher!).

Hi @TippingPoint65218

Yes, we managed it! You can request three separate continuous blocks, so we’ve started just requesting the Xmas block and then will request the summer blocks separately. The head and head of dept know what our plans are and have been mostly supportive.

Taking the time off at the beginning was amazing, and I 100% still needed him home! Would definitely do again (although I won’t lie, some of the team were not as happy that he was allowed to take the leave as he has, but my partner still thinks it’s the best thing we’ve done).

@Orangepen13

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!)

Teachers aren’t entitled to annual leave.

I just wondered how you got on with this. I have looked at all the sources of information I can find on using SPL to get paid in full over the school holidays. I have filled in the forms from the ACAS website. Who at your school did you send the forms to?

Hi @Jo2022
So, you can take three separate blocks as long as each block is for a continuous amount of time. We did request the leave around the half term (2 separate blocks) and this was within our rights BUT my partner was made to feel uncomfortable about this so we retracted it and changed to one block to save future problems. For one week it wasn’t worth it (he said… I didn’t agree but there you go)

I guess it depends on your school, but we went to HR and head teacher.

Thanks. I have got 2 blocks and not worried about the half term. I agree I am entitled but decided to leave it as I also want to request part time on return and school can be a bit funny about it. Do you mean the HR person within the school?