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Continuous Service

I wondered if anyone could help  with a basic question which we are getting in a muddle with. This is to do with continuous service for teachers. 
We are trying to pin down a set of rules to follow, but all the advice and rules we have read are giving differing responses, and we want to be consistent in our contracts. 
The question is if a teacher is coming from another academy or maintained school from outside the local authority (so not technically considered an ‘associated employer’) are they eligible to keep their continuous service? ie does either the Redundancy Payments (Continuity of Employment in Local Government etc) (Modification) Order 1999 ensure that the continuous service remains or does the fact they are not from an associated employer means that their previous employment does not count towards their period of continuous employment with the School.
Any thoughts or advice on this would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
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  • I can't think of a single reason why I would consider giving continuous service to somebody unless you have to and the order is quite clear of who and in which circumstances this applies.

    I recall dealing with a couple of these years ago. If I remember correctly, it depended on a number of factors (1) whether the incoming and outgoing organisation are covered by Continuity of Employment in Local Government etc) (Modification) Order 1999 www.legislation.gov.uk/.../made and (2) what your contract/terms and conditions state.

    If the outgoing organisation is not included, I would not recommend recognising continuous service for a number of reasons, including employment costs, potential redundancy costs etc. Why would you consider this for teaching staff? If you consider this for them, what will you do with non-teaching staff?
  • I work for a MAT in Northamptonshire, and we honor continuous service for support staff and teaching staff as a recruitment incentive. It does cause a few problems when trying to verify their entitlement as not all academies honor it and I believe if you go from an academy to a LA school, the LA will not recognise time served in an academy as continuous service.

    Elaine