Maternity, paternity, adoption, parental leave entitlement and requests to work flexibly

The Work and Families Act 2006 has increased entitlements to maternity and adoption pay with effect from April 2007. It has also introduced ‘Keeping in Touch’ days for employees on maternity leave and the right for managers to make ‘reasonable contact’. In respect of flexible working, this has been extended to care for dependants as well as children.

Maternity and Paternity Leave

The current entitlements are explained in the following guidance notes, but the main points to note are that:

Subject to 26 weeks’ continuous service at the 15th week before the Expected Week of Childbirth, staff are entitled to a year’s maternity leave of which 13 weeks is unpaid
Subject to 6 months’ continuous service, staff are entitled to two weeks’ paternity leave on full pay
The cost of the maternity and paternity pay will be charged to the budget from which the salary is paid, but a proportion of the pay for both maternity and paternity leave may be claimed back from the Inland Revenue (this will be done by Human Resources and refunded to the relevant budget)
Departments can also make applications to the APRC for help in covering the costs of maternity replacement; the APRC fund is, however, relatively small and cannot cover all cases
If women wish to return early from maternity leave, they have to confirm their date of return from maternity leave 8 weeks beforehand.
Members of Recruitment are available to provide advice in terms of making a replacement appointment
Any requests for maternity/paternity/adoption leave should be referred to Natalie Smith.

Parental Leave

Each parent of a child under the age of 5 has the right to a total of 13 weeks’ unpaid parental leave per child (if the child has a disability, this has been increased to 18 weeks and can be taken up to the age of 18; for adopted children, the cut off point is the fifth anniversary of the adoption or when the child reaches 18 years old)
Since the right was introduced in December 1999, there have been a limited number of applications received to date; the reason for the low take up rate is considered to be due to the fact that it is unpaid.
Parental leave requested during teaching terms is not considered to be a sufficient argument to refuse the request.
If a request is received for parental leave, please discuss it with Natalie Smith or Lisa Morrow.

Adoption Leave

With effect from April 2003, the Employment Act 2002 introduced the right for working adoptive parents to receive 26 weeks' paid and 26 weeks' unpaid leave. This was increased by the Work and Families Act to 39 weeks’ paid and 13 weeks’ unpaid leave. To be eligible for this, it is necessary to have 26 weeks' continuous service by the date that the parents are 'matched' for adoption. The entitlement is open to one of the adoptive parents only; the other may however be entitled to take parental leave. Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP) will be the same as Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) and will be paid at either 90% of actual pay, or £117.18 per week, whichever is the lesser amount.
Subject to 26 weeks’ service at the School, staff are eligible for contractual adoption leave at the same rate as maternity leave (18 weeks’ full pay plus 21 weeks’ SAP).
To be entitled to this leave, employees must normally give notice of the intended dates of adoption leave within a week after they have been matched. The leave may start up to 14 days before the actual placement.
It should be noted that different criteria apply when a child is adopted from overseas.

Staff Support Leave – compassionate leave

Staff are allowed leave of two days for the death and attendance at the funeral of immediate family (eg child, spouse or partner, parent, grandparent). If the member of staff is directly responsible for making the funeral arrangements then up to a total of five working days for planning and attendance may be given.
Paid leave may also be given when a member of staff has a close relative who is terminally ill and they are responsible for care in the absence of other nursing arrangements. The total amount of leave should be not more than ten or fifteen working days and, previous leave connected with the same illness may be taken into account.

Staff Support Leave – emergency leave

Staff can request up to two paid days a year emergency leave, for circumstances not covered by compassionate leave.
It should be noted that this is to cover emergencies for which arrangements could not have been made in advance and should only be taken to cover the period of emergency.

Right to Request to Work Flexibly

Right applies to employees who have completed 26 weeks’ continuous service and have responsibility for the upbringing of a child under 6 (18 if child has a disability) or be expecting to care for a dependant;
Includes a variety of requests, for example part-time working, homeworking, compressed working week, job share or term time working.
Having made an application, the member of staff has the right for it to be considered seriously and there is a time frame and procedure, which must be followed.
If it is not felt to be possible to agree to the request, the reason for the refusal must fall within one or more of eight business grounds. These are:
- burden of additional costs
- detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand
- inability to reorganise work among existing staff
- detrimental impact on quality
- detrimental impact on performance
- insufficiency of work during the periods the employee proposes to work
- planned structural changes
If the request is refused, the member of staff has the right to appeal and to go to an employment tribunal.
There have been a number of requests received since the right was introduced at the beginning of April 2003.

The level of requests to work flexibly is likely to grow in the light of the extension of the right to care for adults. A flexible working toolkit is available from Employment Relations to help managers consider such requests.

The DTI have produced a pack entitled Flexible working: The Right to Request and the Duty to Consider, which can be obtained from http://www.dti.gov.uk/files/file21364.pdf. Where such requests are received, advice should always be sought from Employment Relations.