The Education Alliance (TEAL), a multi academy trust across the Humber region, has launched an ambitious new offer of maternity and family leave benefits for its staff to boost retention and promote teaching as a family-friendly career.
TEAL’s new Family Leave offer includes the most generous maternity and adoption pay across the education academy sector: 8 weeks full pay, 18 weeks half pay plus statutory entitlements. The pay will be a day one right and will apply to both teaching and support staff. The updated policy includes offering uncapped paid leave for women and partners who suffer miscarriage and early pregnancy loss. The policy is being launched during World Prematurity Month and also promotes understanding of the significant impact of premature birth and neonatal admission by extending leave and pay for parents in this circumstance. This commitment has awarded TEAL with an Employer with a Heart charter mark from The Smallest Things charity, a national charity supporting parents of premature infants.
Jonny Uttley, Chief Executive Officer, said:
“I am absolutely delighted and enormously proud that we are now offering a greatly enhanced package of support to our colleagues at this really important moment in their lives. Matching the offer the NHS makes to its employees was very important for us, but we wanted to go beyond that by making all our benefits available from the first day of employment, which makes it easier for women to move jobs, and removes a significant barrier that shouldn’t be there.
“Making uncapped paid leave in the sad case of early pregnancy loss was also important for us, as was extending paid leave in cases of premature birth. These can me incredibly challenging or traumatising moments in people’s lives, and they should not have to worry about pay and support. We must do whatever we can to help people through both the best and worst moments in their lives and that is what we try to do.
“Over the last few years, we have worked hard at TEAL to try to do as much as we can to improve the working lives of colleagues and to support people in the good times in their lives and in difficult moments. We have scrapped performance related pay, significantly improved special leave policies and bereavement policies and always apply pay rises as soon as possible. We offer to pay for prescriptions as well as eye tests and flu jabs. And we prioritise enabling all staff to attend events for their own children, such as nativities at their schools.
“We are enormously grateful to The Maternity Teacher Paternity Teacher Project for their support in helping us make this change. I hope their work and our example will encourage other schools, trusts and LAs changes and improve what they offer.
“Having the support of The Smallest Things is wonderful and we are delighted to have been given the Employer With Heart award and to join their Hall of Fame. The impact of premature birth and neonatal intensive care is too little understood and too often overlooked. Improving paid leave for our colleagues is a small but important step. There is more to do and we will continue to support The Smallest Things in their work.”
Emma Collins, Assistant HR Director, said:
“We are passionate about supporting our staff throughout their careers, and recognise that navigating parenthood work can and be a particularly stressful and vulnerable time. Our new Family Leave policy is the latest of our approaches to ensuring that careers at TEAL can be family-friendly and to support retaining the talent we have across our trust.”
Catriona Ogilvy, Chair and Founder of The Smallest Things, said:
“We are delighted The Education Alliance (TEAL) has signed up to our newly updated Employer with Heart 2.0 charter, giving staff whose babies are born prematurely the extra time they need to be with their baby in hospital and parents the time they need to recover and bond with their baby when they come home.
“These changes will mean so much to staff at The Education Alliance, giving them the emotional and financial support they need at a time of great stress and trauma. No parent should be sitting next to an incubator or neonatal cot worrying about work and pay.
“Smallest Things have long campaigned for extended leave for neonatal parents and we hope that more employers follow The Education Alliance’s lead by making changes now, going above and beyond new statutory entitlements as part of the new Neonatal (Leave and Pay) Care Bill.”
The policy change is part of TEAL’s commitment to supporting its workforce to balance personal and family life with their important contributions in their roles in education. TEAL approves 98% of flexible working requests and has a policy to ensure that all staff can attend their own children’s sports days and school plays; events that teachers often miss while needing to be present for their students. The work has been supported by the Maternity Teacher Paternity Teacher (MTPT) charity for parent-teachers, and The Smallest Things charity supporting change and raising awareness of premature birth.
- Women in their thirties are leaving teaching at an alarming rate due to workload, lack of flexibility and inadequate support for returning; according to research led by the Maternity Teacher Paternity Teacher (MTPT) Project and The New Britain Project (‘Missing Mothers’ report) (www.newbritain.org.uk/missing-mothers).
- Most teachers in England receive 4 weeks full pay, 2 weeks at 90% pay and 12 weeks of half pay plus statutory pay.
- Most education support staff in England receive 6 weeks 90% pay, 12 weeks half pay plus statutory pay.
- There is currently no statutory entitlement to paid leave from work for miscarriage or early pregnancy loss.
- Labour have committed to funding the recruitment of 6,500 new teachers in their Autumn Budget.
- November is World Prematurity Month.
- TEAL’s policy matches the NHS offer of maternity and adoption leave pay entitlements.