Mat Leave and Academies

[MsFiremanSam]

Hi,

Wondering if anyone knows the answer to my employment issue. I work at a sponsored Academy and am on mat leave, but I want to move schools without having to pay back any mat pay. I know that you can move between LEA schools and it's considered to be continuous employment - but can you move from an academy to another academy, or an LEA school?

I don't want to ask HR and alert them to my plan to leave, but they did email me the mat policy before I left and they use the local LEA one which states you can return to any school in the locality. I did sign a form saying I planned to return though - but does it have to be there?

Anyone know anything about this?

Thanks!

You have to keep the same employer, so you couldn't move from an academy to a different academy or LA school as they are all different employers.

Thanks noble.
Even if they adopt the lea policy which says you can move to another school in the area?

As I understand it, Noble is correct- check your payslip. If it is issued by the LEA, then you can move to another school in the LEA without having to pay the money back.

If it is, for example, an Ark Academy payslip, then you would need to check their specific terms and conditions. It may be that you could move to another Ark Academy without having to pay the money back. But I doubt it.

Thanks Tethersend. My payslip does come from the LEA. If that means I can move to another LEA school, I wonder if I can move to another academy?
Assuming I can't move and have to return for the required 3 months, does anyone know if August is included?
Thanks for advice so far.

Are you employed under Teachers Pay and Conditions?

August counts.

Please double check who you are employed by- Academies can set their own terms and conditions. More info here, although it was published in May 2013.

From the last paragraph:

On returning from an Academy to a local authority maintained school, the period of employment at the Academy will not automatically be counted for entitlement to sickness and maternity leave and pay if the authority does not recognise service at academies. Entitlement to sickness leave and pay, which depends on total aggregated service in local authority maintained schools, will not be affected unless the teacher has less than 4 years’ previous aggregated employment in this sector. Entitlement to maternity leave and pay, however, depends on continuous service, so this entitlement may therefore need to be acquired anew through a new period of continuous employment. Service in the Academy will, however, count towards length of service for redundancy pay under the terms of the Modification Order.

So it really depends on what your contract says.