What leave of absence you give to your school staff? - General - HR in Schools and Academies

2 What leave of absence you give to your school staff?

Jenny | 0 Posts

9 Mar, 2017 12:41

Hi everyone,

I would be very interested to hear what leave of absence you give to your staff.

We are a LA authority maintained school and at the moment we offer ( on top of the statutory)

Leave of Absence that MAY be granted with pay

Compassionate Leave
- 6 days - death of close family member
- 1 day - funeral of other relative
- Discretion - funeral of non-family member
Emergency Leave
- 5 days - care of close family member (illness, taking them to appointments etc)
- Discretion - other domestic emergencies that cannot be handled outside of school hours
Medical Treatment
- Discretion - routine medical/dentist appointment
- 1 day - moving house
- 3 days - attending interviews
- 1 day - study time
- 1 day - attendance at aware/graduation ceremony

Leave without pay (other than statutory)

1 day - religious observance

The policy is very out of date and we do seem to allow all our staff to go to all of their appointments within school hours. We are a SEN school, which makes the job quite physical, and a very high percentage of our staff seem to need to have physio appointments (as well as other appointments). Also, a lot of staff have their own children with SEN and need to attend a lot of appointments with them (although we seem to limit paid time off for this need to 5 days).

We do lose a huge amount of money by allowing all staff to go to their appointments paid. Most end up being out of school for half-a-day.

I was hoping others would share there policies and thoughts.

Thanks so much

Jenny

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Freya | 0 Posts

16 Mar, 2017 13:36

Hi Jenny

I'm just reviewing the leave of absences we grant we call it 'Special Leave' and we request individuals make medical/appointments at the start or the end of the day - our School day runs till 3:30 and we try and encourage individuals to get appointments after this time (giving them at least 2hrs before most doctor/dentists) or during the school holidays (which lets face it there are enough of!) where it is for a non urgent reason. So proactively manage in effect. We also record all time off and make people aware of how much time they are having off and if individuals are having a lot of time off for medical/ doctors appointments we get them in for a discussion to see if there is any underlying cause for the excessive appointments. It also shows people we are monitoring it. We also have a clause that states we can request proof of appointment to discourage non-genuine absences.

If a lot of people are having physio why don't you see if you can arrange for a physio to come to your workplace one day a month of even a couple of evenings after school hours? This may be cheaper than allowing lots of time off and means the time individuals are absence from work would be less. Also a good health and wellbeing initiative!

Just some thoughts anyway - hope they help

Freya
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Claire | 0 Posts

13 Nov, 2018 08:55

Hi Jenny

We have a similar policy which was inherited from the LA, we have revised the policy to include the following statement

"This policy is not exhaustive and gives an overview of what employees can reasonably request time off work for. Where an entitlement to paid or unpaid leave is outlined in this policy it is always within one rolling year (12 months) and should not exceed three occasions in the year unless specifically agreed and authorised by the Principal"

As Freya has mentioned too, we monitor the number of requests and use a similar 'trigger level' process for staff who have exceeded the 3 occasions.

We also included this statement in the policy which has been useful to refer to.

"For the avoidance of doubt, a willingness to take unpaid leave of absence does not automatically entitle the employee to the time off. A decision will be made based on the nature of the request and the needs of the Academy. The Principal reserves the right to refuse to allow the employee to take time off"

Thanks
Claire
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