Shared Parental Leave for Teachers

I can’t help I’m afraid but if no one responds… copy and paste the details into ChatGPT and ask it to explain. I’ve asked it to simplify loads of things and find it really helpful. And you can ask it to clarify points and work out scenarios if you’re still unsure 😁

I did it with my partner and I took 19 weeks while he is taking 15 I think. You have to check if you are both eligible and then get the OK from both your employers. If they agree you can share the leave. I think you can take it in blocks so it would work with your dates and you can both be off at the same time (eg Christmas). For the application you just fill in a form that HR sends you.

@Nikki-Lee using Chat GPT is a great idea, thank you so much! xx

Thank you so much @Francesca, we’d be looking for me to take it all myself. Just trying to work out how to get some extra pennies as maternity leave for teachers is really poor isn’t it! My husband works for the NHS & is eligible for it x

You still need the NHS to agree even if he says he won’t take any time off! You should check if they have an enhanced maternity leave at the NHS as he might qualify if he is on SPL. For example my partner’s company offers 6 months at 90% (much better than mine), so now that he is on leave he is well paid for at least a bit of it

My husband is a teacher. He just submitted a form they needed. He’s done it as blocks so he returns for holidays and gets paid for that. They can’t legally dispute or negotiate blocks from what I understand, so they have to accept it as they would mat leave. His work had a look at it I think as it took a while for them to approve it and they made some comments about having looked into it but they have to accept. Only other thing we considered was just like mat leave if it’s longer than a set amount of time, I think it’s 25 weeks? You’d have to check that’ they can legally change the job role you return to but under that they can’t so we factored that into how long he took in total

Wow, that’s amazing for you & your partner! Thank you again, for all the info, I thought that all was needed for the eligibility criteria. I’ll have another dive at policies & get the ball rolling ASAP to see where we stand x

https://www.teachersspl.co.uk/ I used these people to do the forms for me. You pay a fee but they help and sort out your best options and give you a forecast x

Thanks for asking this, I tried looking and then baby arrived and my brain got scrambled! I wanted to go "back to work" for the summer holidays and my husband take shared parental leave then (I'm not a teacher but work in education so am term time). I get enhanced leave though, and can't work out whether when I went back I would still get enhanced leave or if I would be on shared parental leave. Why can't they make these things simple to understand?!

Thanks @Chloe, I had read the help from the website but had not looked at them doing it for me! Were you satisfied with what they did for you? xx

@Vicki I strongly suspect that they don’t make things easy to discourage people from applying to what they’re entitled for 🫠

@Délia really satisfied they made an excel document so I can see weekly pay and they wrote an estimate of the extra money I would receive if I took the blocks they suggested. They then complete forms and leave a few personal details for you to add. Just made it easier x

@Vicki unfortunately I don’t think you will if the total number of combined weeks exceeded your enhanced pay. I took 19 weeks before my partner went on leave himself and he only got 6 weeks of enhanced pay (even tho his company offered 25 weeks-like I ate the first 19 basically). I hope for you it is up to the company to decide!

I second the teacher SPL site, worth every penny, the lady literally sorted it all for me x

They might be the life savers I need then, definitely worth paying for it as they obviously know what they’re doing! Thank you so much for sharing @Chloe xx

@Délia so annoying we have to go through all the process when really it’s what we should be entitled too x

@Francesca it's all a bit much for me! I've messaged the spl team to see if they can help me understand 🤞

I have done this (currently off still) and happy to look at it for you or help with the forms x

It is 100% worth it. I spoke to HR in school and they helped me get the best out of it.