Some advice-Possible redundancy next year

[MrsCrumbtious]

Hi, I am really not very clued up on anything to do with employment/work law etc and was hoping someone here would give me advice.

I am working as a nursery nurse at a charity run day nursery which is located on a school grounds. My deputy manager told me in confidence that school is looking into becomming an academy which would mean that the current leasehold on the nursery would be null and void and the nursery and the land it sits on can go back to the school

We fear that the head at the school would like to take over the nursery because in the long and short of it has £ signs in his/her head (there is going to be a meeting next month to discuss what is going to happen) and the head will not confirm or deny if they want to have the nursery.

This is really stressing me out not knowing and also my husband and I are going to start trying for a baby next month but relluctant to tell him what is happening until it is definate.

What I really want to know is will we (as a nursery) be made redundant with immediate effect? Will we be entitled to redundancy pay as the nursery is charity run and would SMP be effected if we are lucky enough to get pregnant?

Thanks xx

Well, firstly, I wouldn't take the deputy's word for it that the leasehold "would be null and void", it's not that simple. It will depend on the terms of the lease, who the lease is actually with, and also on the terms of the lease the academy will have when it converts with the current owners of the land who are probably the Local Authority. (I've taken my employment law hat off for a minute and speak as a governor of a school which converted to an academy a couple of years ago and which has two other leased properties on the grounds, with different arrangements for each.)

Leaving all that aside, if the arrangement is that the charity cease running the nursery and either the school directly or someone else take over, I would imagine this would be a TUPE situation, which basically means the staff should transfer also, with terms and conditions and length of service protected. This means any entitlement to redundancy pay if the nursery shuts or staffing is reduced would be protected, and your entitlement to SMP wouldn't change.

Some of it (if it happens) will depend how long you've been employed there, as a lot of redundancy rights only kick in after you've been employed there two years.

ACAS has some information, so you can check what rights and expectations you should have on redundancy, TUPE and so on, as does the CAB.