You are here:
Contracts and terms and conditions of employment
- Changing an employee's role and responsibilities See advice on changing a staff member's role and responsibilities, including what to do if they don't want to change.
- Conditions of service for school support staff Find out the conditions of service for school support staff and who’s responsible for setting conditions in different types of schools.
- Conditions of service for teachers: the STPCD and the Burgundy Book Find out whether the School Teachers' Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) and Burgundy Book apply in your school and get an overview of the key requirements they cover.
- Continuous service Find a definition of continuous service, and whether it applies to a staff member who's moving between a maintained school and academy.
- How to handle flexible working requests Find out how to confidently respond to any flexible working requests you receive. Download our request form to give to your staff, and learn what to do when you receive a request, and the reasonable grounds for refusal.
- Higher level teaching assistants (HLTAs) delivering lessons Understand the legal requirements for HLTAs delivering lessons and covering absence, and read advice on when and for how long your HLTAs should be used in this way.
- Upper pay range (UPR): additional responsibilities Find out about your requirements around having teachers on the upper pay range (UPR) take on additional responsibilities, including rules around payments.
4 articles
Maternity and paternity arrangements
- Keeping in touch (KIT) days Employees on maternity, adoption or parental leave are entitled to 10 keeping in touch (KIT) days. Read guidance on how and when they can be used, as well as how to calculate pay.
- Maternity leave and pay: teachers Download our summary of the rules about maternity pay and leave, and adapt our 2 template letters, one for employees giving notice of maternity leave to their employer and the other for employers confirming maternity pay and leave details to an employee.
- Maternity pay and leave entitlements: support staff All support staff are eligible for 26 weeks of ordinary maternity leave and 26 weeks of additional maternity leave. See guidance on issues surrounding maternity leave, as well as statutory and occupational maternity pay.
- Paternity leave and pay Eligible employees are entitled to statutory paternity pay and leave. Read government guidance on your responsibilities as an employer, as well as expert advice on fitting paternity leave around school holidays.
8 articles
Organising working time and breaks
- Directed time: entitlement to breaks Find out what breaks your teachers are entitled to, how long they should be and the issues to bear in mind, with DfE, ASCL and expert guidance.
- Directed time: what's covered and how to organise and allocate it Understand the rules around directed time and download our directed time calculator to help you organise and allocate the 1,258.5 hours for your staff during the 2021/22 academic year. Also see examples of directed time budgets from schools.
- Introducing additional INSET days Be clear on when you can introduce extra INSET days for teachers, and what you should consider before doing so.
- Lunch and breaktime supervision duties for staff You can't require teachers employed under the STPCD to supervise lunchbreaks, but you can make your own arrangements for teachers employed under other terms and conditions. Find out about breaktime supervision duties for support staff and rights to rest breaks.
- Part-time staff: attending INSET days and meetings Understand the guidance around a part-time staff member attending meetings, including parent evenings, and training events such as INSET days. See the rules for teachers and support staff, and whether you should pro-rata attendance.
- Part-time teachers' working time Find out the rules on working time for part-time teachers and be clear on their employment conditions under the STPCD. Use our template to make a case to change a part-time teacher’s working days.
- Rest breaks for support staff Understand your requirements around providing support staff with rest breaks. Find out what to do about pay if support staff members work through their break.
- Staff meetings: schedules and agendas You're not required to have a meeting schedule or agendas. However, it is good practice, and this article points to help with creating these documents and provides guidance on how frequently meetings can be held.
4 articles
PPA time and other non-contact time
- Management time: requirements You must give teachers with leadership responsibilities, such as subject leaders, a 'reasonable' amount of non-contact time. Find out the rules here, and see advice on how much time to give.
- Planning, preparation and assessment (PPA) time Find essential information on planning, preparation and assessment (PPA) time in just one page. You can also download a copy of this QuickRead as a ready-made resource to share with colleagues.
- PPA time: asking teachers to plan cover lessons There is no requirement for teachers to plan their own cover lessons. Understand how to manage planning for cover lessons with guidance on making alternative arrangements.
- PPA time: rules, eligibility and organisation Under the STPCD, you must provide eligible teachers with guaranteed planning, preparation and assessment (PPA) time. Read the rules on what you must provide, which teachers are eligible and how to organise it.
9 articles
Staff leave and absence
- Leave entitlements for staff Understand the statutory and additional leave entitlements an employer must provide for teachers and support staff.
- Managing staff sickness absence and attendance Reduce sickness absence among your staff by promoting wellbeing, making sure your policies are clear, and keeping on top of workplace hygiene.
- Return to work interviews: template and guidance Get the most out of return to work interviews with this downloadable template and advice on how to prepare and what to cover.
- Sick pay entitlements: teachers Learn about sick pay terms for teachers, including who the Burgundy Book terms apply to and what they cover. Also see the latest guidance on pay during self-isolation due to coronavirus.
- Sick pay for support staff Find out about statutory and occupational sick pay for your support staff, including who's entitled, what they're entitled to, who's not eligible, and how to calculate it.
- Staff leave of absence request forms Find examples of leave request forms from schools to help you write your own.
- Staff medical appointments during school hours Staff are entitled to paid time off for certain medical appointments, but not all. See advice from Acas and ASCL on staff attending medical appointments during the school day.
- Staff sickness absence statistics See the latest national statistics on teacher sickness absence, and learn how you can benchmark your school's sickness absence data with that of other schools.
- Support staff: offering term-time holidays Many schools don’t allow year-round support staff to take annual leave during the term, but we know some school leaders are questioning this approach. Read on to see why you might consider it, and what you’d need to do to make it happen.