Abby Bayford is the executive director of Greenwood Academies Trust’s Institute of Teaching. She starts our story by explaining how she came to email the CEO of an academy trust while applying for a job to ask about its maternity pay policies...

After years of infertility, I was delighted to go through a successful round of IVF in March 2022.

The discovery that I was pregnant came at a time when I wanted to progress my career but the pregnancy was a dream come true, and so I decided to put my career aspirations on the back burner. Or so I thought.

Then in June 2022, my dream role was advertised - an executive director of the Greenwood Academies Trust (GAT) Institute of Teaching. Professional development is my passion and so I was excited and gutted at the same time.

I didn’t know anyone who had taken on a new role in a new organisation while pregnant, and the more I looked into it, the more questions that sprang to mind - with few answers.

The idea of applying made me feel guilty because I thought I would be letting the organisation down by starting and then leaving eight weeks later for maternity leave.

Yet I could not shake the excitement and so I ended up applying - and declared my pregnancy in the application, convinced I wouldn’t even be shortlisted.

Later that week I had lunch with a friend who works in HR. She was really excited for me, but my heart sank when she told me that if I changed employer while pregnant, I would not be eligible for statutory maternity pay. The best I could hope for was a maternity allowance.

I felt angry about this financial penalty and began to understand why I didn’t know any women who had changed employers while pregnant. It feels incredibly unfair that pregnant women must halt their career progression so they can afford to care for their baby.

I decided to write to the CEO of GAT and ask about its maternity policy and any financial implications if I was lucky enough to be appointed to the role.

Rethinking maternity pay policies

Wayne Norrie is CEO of Greenwood Academies Trust. He explains the impact that Abby’s email had...

When Abby’s email arrived, alongside her application, it was a real eye-opener.

I was delighted that she had applied, as I had seen her outstanding work at the Academy Transformation Trust Institute, and knew she would be a strong candidate. But when she asked what the impact of taking on the role mid-pregnancy would be on her maternity benefits, I had to admit I didn’t know.

After reviewing our maternity guidance across the trust, I discovered that there was a financial disadvantage to colleagues who joined us while pregnant. This did not seem fair to me.

I discussed this position with an employment solicitor, who advised me that there was no legal reason why we couldn’t waive the requirement for a pregnant woman to be employed for a set period of time in order to receive occupational maternity benefits.

Then I spoke to the chair and vice-chair of our trust board, who agreed with me that we should change this discriminatory policy to ensure that colleagues who join us while pregnant are not penalised.

The entire trust board agreed, unanimously, to an immediate change of policy across the trust. So we did change the policy, and now anyone who joins is immediately entitled to the full maternity allowance that would previously only have been available to a long-standing member of staff. Paternity and adoptation leave are also now covered, too.

I am delighted that we have changed our maternity guidance moving forward, which now ensures that any prospective new colleague is not financially penalised for joining GAT while pregnant. And, of course, this meant that when we offered the role to Abby, we were confident she would join!

Abby explains how she started the job with the knowledge that she would soon be leaving for maternity leave...

The fact that I could accept the role without a financial hit was a huge relief.

Without a change to the GAT maternity policy, I wouldn’t have been able to progress my career and I would have missed out on a fantastic opportunity.

Of course, though, taking on the role meant a new and unexpected (but welcome) challenge - how I would strategically lead a new project and keep its momentum while on maternity leave. I began envisioning trying to look after a baby and run the project on my maternity leave.

However, Wayne was adamant that this would not happen, and we discussed what resources I would need so that the strategy could be implemented and I could take precious time to care for my baby.

Being able to discuss this was important, as there’s no blueprint for this situation, and it was important to feel there was enough psychological safety for me to talk to Wayne and say, “This is concerning me; I don’t yet know what the answer is.”

During these discussions, we devised a plan whereby I would go through the usual new job processes of learning about the trust and our 36 academies and engaging in conversations with colleagues about the existing training and developing practices.

This allowed Wayne and I to develop a clear idea from the start about what we wanted the institute to offer and how it would be built, so that we could create a dedicated GAT Institute of Teaching people development strategy with the intention of launching the institute in September 2023, when I return from maternity leave.

However, this would still require someone else to come in and develop this strategy after I left.

The outcome was a recognition that we needed to hire two more people - a deputy director and a director of programmes - to continue the work in my absence and then continue to work alongside me when I returned from the academic year 2023-24.

These roles were already in the development strategy but bringing them forward means I can go on maternity leave knowing that the project will be in good hands and on track for when I return.

While this situation worked out well, with a notable change in GAT’s policies, it is disappointing in a way that it would be considered “progressive” or “innovative”.

One day I hope this is the norm and we remove another of the many barriers that impede a mother from progressing in her career.

Until then we need greater visibility of these case studies to show that there are ways we can improve things for women so that it is not about a choice between a career or having children but about balancing both to work for the benefit of all.

Abby Bayford is the executive director of Greenwood Academies Trust Institute of Teaching

Wayne Norrie is CEO of Greenwood Academies Trust