Last week, MPs met in parliament to debate the petition to raise the rates of maternity and paternity pay to National Living Wage.
The transcript of the debate reads like a comprehensive, inclusive set of policies that could be implemented in any organisation.
The posited solutions include extended and better paid leave for fathers and non-birthing partners, day one rights to leave for all parents, improved childcare funding, and an increase of statutory parental leave and pay from the shocking £4.99 per hour, to National Living Wage.
The private and public sector are celebrating this debate and the hope that change is now on the horizon, but has it even registered in the education community?
The national birth rate, and whether people feel they can afford to start a family, directly impacts our recruitment and retention targets.
And already, as highlighted by Jacob Collier, MP, our declining birth rate is impacting the student roll and teachers’ jobs in some parts of the country.
Michelle Welsh, MP referenced the “first 1,001 days” so important to development in the early years, stressing that a decent length of properly paid leave plays a vital role in parents’ ability to give their children the best start in life.
Of course, these 1,001 days pave the way for children’s pastoral and academic outcomes once they start school.
And Afzal Khan, MP pointed out that such low rates of maternity and paternity pay drive vulnerable families into further poverty, which we then grapple with on an individual, school and national level as we attempt to reduce the disadvantage gap for our students.
More than any other sector, policy makers and leaders in education should be following this debate with avid attention.
Most teachers (but not all support staff) already benefit from an occupational maternity package that is better than the current national offer of six weeks at 90 per cent, and 33 weeks at the statutory rate.
But fathers (and most support staff) in education are no better off than they would be elsewhere. In fact, more generous paternity and equal parental leave and pay policies in the private sector offer a far better deal to fathers and non-birthing partners.
The impact of these unequal policies in education results in the same consequences as in any other industry: gendered roles – and therefore the gender pay gap – are embedded in heterosexual couples from the start; colleagues (often women) in lower paid roles fall further into financial vulnerability, and experienced staff (mostly women) are forced out of the workforce.
When parental leave and pay policies are improved, equalised and sufficiently flexible to accommodate for the reality of varied parenting experiences, the opposite is true: outcomes improve for the child and parents; equality is within reach, and population stability supports a healthier economy.
Equality is coming, and we already have the research and tools to implement more effective policies.
Prince Albert Community Trust, in Birmingham, for example, recently joined the handful of trailblazing multi-academy trusts and local authorities to offer equal and improved parental leave and pay.
The Howard Partnership Trust have introduced day one rights for their parental pay policies.
One colleague from TEAL academy trust, taking part in The MTPT Project’s newest study, said that their improved maternity pay “has made such a difference – not just to the financial part of our lives – but to our general mental wellbeing too.”
The freedoms permitted to trusts means that leaders don’t have to wait for the slow train of national reform to make changes for their communities: they can amend their policies, now, as appropriate to their context, budgets and ethical responsibility to their staff.
And with increasing models of good practice, schools and union leaders can follow the examples of Tower Hamlets, Hounslow and Islington to negotiate improved conditions for local authority and member schools.
As educators, we live and breathe, day in and day out, the positive impact that the collective efforts of our sector have on our country.
Let’s make our family policies and their power to build a healthy and stable workforce yet another way that we contribute to positive social change.
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