Shared parental leave for a teacher

[Baabasheep]

I keep seeing this on the FB group but I honestly don’t understand it and can’t work out if I’m being stupid.

I am due in July, planning to start maternity leave from the end of June. Is it possible for me to be paid in full over the summer by saying DH will be accessing six weeks of parental leave, then go back to maternity pay in September? Or have I misunderstood?

You can switch to SPL from maternity leave. You just need to give 8 weeks notice.
It is only worth starting SPL once you have received all of your enhanced maternity pay and are down to just statutory.
Your partner doesn’t need to take any SPL, you can essentially share it with yourself.
I did it and got my enhanced maternity pay until April, then started SPL and “returned to work” to be paid over May half term and then resumed my SPL where I was paid statutory maternity pay until the summer when I “returned to work” again and was paid for the 6 weeks. I then resumed my SPL and returned to work first day of October half term, without SPL I’d have been returning to work full time from September.
The link above gives you all the info and is great, they even offer packages of support for a small fee.

How much holiday do you accrue as a teacher when on maternity leave?

Thanks - I think i understand now. So we won’t benefit but looks like other women might?

@toomuchlaundry no he doesn’t 😂

You don’t accrue any holiday but depending on when you’re due you can go on either side of a holiday to benefit. So for example if I was due September 1 I could go on maternity leave then and return on the first day of the summer holidays 2024

@toomuchlaundry SPL makes up for the fact that teachers don’t accrue holidays like most other jobs, cos we aren’t able to book annual leave.

@toomuchlaundry teachers don’t accrue leave, we have the set holidays.

OP, read the Teachers SPL website carefully. I did shared parental leave but I waited until I was on statutory mat pay so I wasn’t losing out on any of my enhanced mat pay. Then I just ‘returned’ to work for each school holiday. I had my baby oct 21, then was paid for Easter, may half term and the summer and returned to work in oct 22. I had only one week unpaid at the end of sept.

Looking back, I wish my DH had taken time off, but we just used it to make sure I was paid for the entire year.

There’s lots of misinformation on this thread. Please use the teachers spl website for info. No your husband doesn’t need to actually take the leave. Yes you can take swap on and off of leave.

@toomuchlaundry zero. Teachers accrue zero holiday pay while on maternity leave. Teacher contracts are archaic. Only employed job in the country that doesn’t accrue holiday pay on maternity or sick leave (possibly also MPs - not sure).

So it looks like it wouldn’t be worth it for the summer but potentially would be for Christmas and Easter! That’s fantastic news Really grateful people have replied.

This is really helpful. I'm due end of of oct/start of nov and have been trying to get my head round this. I had planned on properly returning first week of the summer holidays, so I wouldn't miss out on the summer holiday pay, but being able to then go on shared PL for the sept/oct term would be amazing!

How does it go down at school when you say you want to do this?

Is it worth paying for a package to help on that website? I'm guessing it probably is for me as I don't want to get it wrong.

Shared parental leave is at a rate like SMP. You cannot then go back on mat pay, so you will miss out on enhanced occupational maternity pay.

It may be useful to you for October half term and Christmas

(Academy CFO)

You say baby is due at the wrong time but if you are planning to take a year off then as soon as you go back it will be the summer holidays again! So assuming you are going back it could work perfectly and save you 6 weeks childcare if you can cover the couple of weeks in between?

Not quite @cocolemonad sadly, because the baby is due 17th July, and I will probably have him or her between 10-14 July due to planned section. Plus I don’t think I’ll make it that far! I’m currently planning to start maternity leave on the 26th June. So will be down to SMP for the Christmas holidays.

I don’t really mind as I miss most of the 23/24 academic year - only go back for three weeks at the end. But it does mean baby will have to start nursery.

Mat leave starts when you go off before the baby is born.

I did SPL with my first and am a teacher - there are tons of misconceptions including at HR level!
do check out the site www.teachers SPL.co.uk as she has great resources and lots of case studies

do you have enhanced maternity pay at your place? Because if you’re going end July it’s likely you’ll be on full pay for the summer then onto half pay for a few weeks before it drops down. your partner can take paternity leave at the same time, the paternity/maternity have no impact on one another

after your pay goes to statutory is the ideal time to swap to SPL- the site has more details but basically you’d probably be able to ‘return’ over Christmas, Easter and a half term as well. Your partner DOES NOT have to take any SPL at all; you can both be off, both be at work or one of you off and one at work. As long as you don’t exceed the number of weeks allowed in total split between you it’s fine.