Becoming a parent as a teacher can come as a bit of a shock - not just through the reality of being responsible for a child but the financial changes it brings.

Currently, when on maternity leave, the majority of teachers receive the pay outlined in the Burgundy Book: four weeks at full pay, two weeks at 90 per cent and a further 12 weeks at 50 (as long as you meet the qualifying criteria).

This offer places teaching in the 74 per cent of employers who offer a better package than the statutory six weeks of 90 per cent pay.

Above and beyond

Of course, local authorities and multi-academy trusts (MATs) can improve on the Burgundy Book if they so wish, and such improvements can act as attractive recruitment and retention measures and it’s something many take advantage of.

For example, a teacher paid at M6 employed by Dixons Academy Trust is £3,312 better off while on maternity leave as they offer six weeks full pay rather than four, and 20 weeks at half-pay rather than 12.

Meanwhile teaching in a Lambeth local authority school offers a whopping £12,300 more than the Burgundy Book as they provide 10 weeks full pay, six at 90 per cent and 24 at half pay.

Within education these are outliers but the reality is many other public sector bodies offer such terms of payment as standard - and in fact far better is offered to both parents.

For example, the NHS offer 18 weeks at full pay, followed by eight weeks at half pay, the Metropolitan Police provides 30 weeks at full pay and the Department for Education offers 26 weeks at full pay.

An outdated offer

The fact this is for both parents underlines just how outdated education is in many areas when it comes to parental leave entitlements afforded to fathers, non-birthing partners and secondary adopters.

Currently in education, providing they meet qualifying criteria, these “other” parents get just two weeks of paternity leave - and only one has to be paid, with the second paid at the discretion of the employer.

Furthermore, even though shared parental leave is available to extend periods of leave, it is paid at a statutory rate.

As a policy, therefore, it has failed to support fathers, non-birthing partners and secondary adopters to escape these unfair systems as it is financially unviable for many couples.

This is one of the reasons that other organisations - including the DfE - have begun to offer equal parental leave and pay.

The benefits of allowing fathers to spend more time with their babies in the first year of their lives are well-documented: it improves outcomes for children (who become our pupils); it improves domestic equality; it makes fathers happier, and it increases women’s participation in the labour market. The motherhood penalty is reduced, as is its significant contribution to the gender pay gap.

Not as costly as it seems

As such, while improving education’s maternity pay entitlement to match the more generous offers in other sectors would be great, a better national offer of equal parental leave for educators would be an even bigger win by helping more hopeful fathers join the profession and retain more of the mothers we are currently losing.

For those with their eye on budgets, it also probably wouldn’t cost as much as it may first appear - men are a minority in the teacher workforce and male teachers aged 25-39, the prime age for fatherhood, make up just 12 per cent of our teachers.

Even mirroring the statutory six weeks of nearly full pay that colleagues on maternity leave enjoy would go a long way in demonstrating that teaching is a valued profession, and attract more men into the classroom, without breaking the bank.

Currently, though, such suggestions directed towards decision-makers are met with deflection. The Burgundy Book is negotiated between unions and local authorities, and therefore parental leave and pay cannot be a centralised offer.

Change - like that of the historical victories secured in Tower Hamlets or Haringey - is therefore more likely to be achieved at local authority or MAT level, rather than nationally, at least in the short term.

So who will be the first local authority, or MAT to take up the challenge of offering equal (and maybe, improved) parental leave and pay to teachers? If you’re out there, do let us at the Maternity Teacher/Paternity Teacher Project know.

Emma Sheppard is a lead practitioner for English and the founder of the Maternity Teacher/Paternity Teacher Project

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