Term time working involves staff generally only working during school term time. This enables staff to balance childcare needs during school holidays and continue to be paid an annual salary in 12 monthly instalments.
Contracts can be worked over a differing number of weeks across the year and staff can work either full-time or part-time during term time. Service is continuous throughout the year.
The number of weeks worked will vary according to the needs of the service and member of staff. Term time contracts are typically either 38, 39 or 40 weeks.
Agreement of what hours will be worked during term time will need to be confirmed with the member of staff and manager prior to the term time contract starting.
Staff on term time contracts take their annual leave during school holidays. See 'After agreeing a request' below for more information on this.
Term time contracts involve a reduction in salary for the time spent out of the organisation and extended unpaid holidays to coincide with school holiday periods. Salary is usually paid in 12 monthly instalments.
Staff are paid for the number of 'term weeks' that they work, plus their annual leave/bank holiday entitlement.
Example: staff on 39 week term time contracts will be paid for the 39 weeks when they are at work plus their annual leave/bank holiday entitlement accrued. Their salary is averaged out over 12 months to ensure they receive a salary every month of the year.
For support with calculating the annual leave entitlement for a term time member of staff, please contact 'firstcontact' on:
Staff will need to determine the following, in order to receive an appropriate level of salary averaged out over a 12 month period:
Important note: if a term time contract begins part way through a year, pay would need to be calculated pro-rata to account for this. Where the contract ends part way through a year, the final payment would be adjusted to ensure that the member of staff has been paid for the days that they have worked up to the termination.
Review how the service is delivered to identify any peaks and dips throughout the year and when they occur.
Supporting members of staff who are parents or carers and could benefit from term time working can help retain talent and knowledge within the service.
Decide how hours could be worked throughout the year (e.g. agreed working patterns or core hours with flexibility included).
Has the member of staff decided to work a 38, 39 or 40 week pattern and when are the term time dates?
Identify how staff will record the hours that they worked or are owed and how regularly this need to be reviewed. Working time directives still need to be adhered to in relation to the maximum number of hours worked in a week.
Once a term time request has been agreed, the member of staff's annual leave entitlement will be paid to offset some of their unpaid leave during the school holidays. This is because they take their paid annual leave during the school holiday period and not during term time. If time off during term time is needed, this is taken as unpaid leave and would need to be discussed and approved by the line manager.
Hours worked and time off should be regularly reviewed and monitored. The agreed request must be reviewed annually.
Term time working pattern need to be set on SMART/Allocate. The member of staff will show as having TOIL each week during non-holiday weeks. This is because they will be working for a higher number of hours per non-holiday week than they are being paid for (e.g. working 25 hours per week but being paid for 21.62 hours). However, they do not actually accrue this TOIL as these hours are built into the calculations.
For further support on recording hours accurately please contact the e-rostering team.
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