Maternity.scotWe've estimated your monthly pay for your maternity leave, including the month before and after so that you can compare your pay. Gross pay includes pay rises and salary point increases, but please note many councils are slow introduce pay rises and then backdate the missing pay a few months later. As we have no way of knowing this, we show increases immediately. Take-home pay includes estimated deductions for Scottish Income Tax, National Insurance, pension, salary sacrifice and loans. We've not included additions such as holidays taken as payment, grants or child benefit.
One of the things we found most confusing during maternity leave, was calculating how many days holidays we'd be able to use at the end. Teachers accrue paid leave on the basis of 0.20513 of each day of maternity leave, but that doesn't mean much when you might be owed holidays from before maternity leave started, or need to keep some for upcoming holidays. And it's not as simple as counting school holidays, because 25/26 of them don't count! Based on everything you've told us, it looks like you'll have this many days that you can actually take:
So what does this mean? Well, you've told us that your maternity leave will end on not available yet. If you used all of your accrued holidays to extend your leave from this date, and you returned on the same working pattern, your actual return to work would be not available yet. Because most councils do not publish the exact teacher leave days inside each closure, this remains an estimate. We use the standard Scottish-teacher pattern of 5 days in autumn, 10 around Christmas and New Year, 10 in spring and 15 in summer, then count how many of those closure days fall during your maternity leave.
When you notify your council of your intended maternity leave end date, they'll issue you a statement of accrued holidays - if you haven't received one, make sure you ask them for it, as you'll need to check they've not made any errors. This statement will confirm the actual days they assign as holidays, rather than making estaimtes like we've had to do. You might be asked to take some of these during school closures, meaning you'll receive a payment instead. Your maternity leave will either fall within one or two leave years. Statutory leave of 28 days (for full time) must be taken for each leave year spanned.
All teachers and music instructors will accrue paid leave on the basis of 0.20513 of a day for each day worked in the school session and pro rata for each part day. ‘Days worked’ include any period of family leave, days of sickness and any other form of paid leave, except for annual leave. Accrued annual leave as a result of family leave will count as ‘days worked’. https://www.snct.org.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Part_2_Section_5
On return from maternity leave the employee shall take any remaining statutory leave in that leave year. Where it is not practicable to take that leave in full or in part any balance will be carried forward into the next leave year but must be taken as leave. The timing of this leave shall take account of the needs of the service and, (a) in the case of teachers and music instructors, should normally be taken in the term in which the return to work takes place, or within the following term. https://www.snct.org.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Part_2_Section_7
The balance of annual leave, in excess of statutory leave, accrued during the period of maternity leave shall be taken following the end of the maternity leave period. The timing of this leave is subject to the overriding needs of the service and, (a) in the case of teachers and music instructors, the accrued leave can be directed to be taken during the days of school closure, with payment to be arranged in accordance with Section 5, Paragraph 5.7 above with any remaining leave to be taken in the term in which the return to work takes place, or within the following term. https://www.snct.org.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Part_2_Section_7