Special leave and family time off for council staff

The Green Book, the national agreement for council and most school support staff in England and Wales, gives you a short list of paid time off and leaves most of the rest to employer discretion. Five days’ paid maternity support leave, five days’ adoption support leave, paid time off for cancer screening and paid leave for public duties are in the national text. Everything else, from fertility appointments to bereavement, depends on your council’s own policy.

What is guaranteed in the national agreement

Part 2 paragraph 7 of the Green Book sets the paid items. Paid leave of absence is granted for jury service, serving on public bodies or other public duties. If a public body pays an allowance for loss of earnings, you claim it and hand it over to your council, so you are not paid twice. The jury service at work guide covers how the court side works.

Necessary paid time off is granted for cancer screening. Maternity support leave is five days with pay for the child’s father, the partner or a nominated carer of an expectant mother, taken at or around the birth. A nominated carer is whoever the mother names to help care for the child and support her at that time. Adoption support leave works the same way: five days with pay for the partner or nominated carer of the primary adopter, around the time of placement.

Councils are recommended, not required, to run an adoption leave scheme. Your council’s version will be in its family leave policy.

Special leave

Paragraph 7.9 says additional leave with or without pay may be granted in special circumstances at the employing authority’s discretion. The agreement does not define the circumstances or say how many days you can have. Both are set by your council’s policy, so what you get can differ from the council next door.

The same paragraph tells authorities to give particular consideration to reasonable paid time off for dependants. The legal right is narrower. Under the statutory rule you can take a reasonable amount of time off for an emergency involving a dependant, and your employer does not have to pay you. The Green Book guidance in Part 4.5 goes further: authorities should consider events that can be foreseen but are serious, such as settling an elderly relative into a care home, or going to hospital with a child or partner for a planned operation. The time off for dependants guide sets out the legal minimum.

Family-related guidance in Part 4.5

Part 4.5 is advice, so employers can adopt it in full, in part or not at all. It recommends reasonable time off for staff having fertility treatment. It says authorities may grant more ante-natal time off than the statutory two appointments to fathers-to-be, partners and nominated carers, for example to attend parent-craft classes.

For pregnancy loss the guidance divides at 24 weeks. If a baby is stillborn or dies after 24 weeks, the maternity scheme applies. Before 24 weeks, or after a termination, authorities should give sympathetic consideration and grant special leave or sick leave according to the person’s circumstances and medical opinion. After a premature birth, each case is considered on its merits, and extending maternity leave is given as an example.

Because the wording is “should consider”, a request is worth making in writing, with the guidance reference if your policy is silent. HR will tell you what your employer actually applies.

The model parental leave scheme

Part 4.6 is a model scheme that authorities are recommended to adopt or replace with a local one. It gives 18 weeks of parental leave per child, up to the child’s 18th birthday. That matches the statutory figure on GOV.UK, where the limit is four weeks per child each year unless the employer agrees otherwise, and the leave is unpaid.

The model adds a few things. Authorities should extend leave to people with parental responsibility who fall outside the legal definition, including foster parents, adoptive parents before placement, grandparents with a significant parenting role and step-parents. Notice is at least seven days in writing. Postponement should be avoided and cannot go past three months except in exceptional circumstances. Leave can be a single block, shorter periods of at least half a day, or a reduced-hours pattern that adds up to 18 weeks. Time on parental leave counts as continuous service, and if you are sick during it you get sick pay and that time does not use up your entitlement. The wider rules are in the unpaid parental leave guide.

What to check

Ask HR for the leave policies by name: special leave, family leave, adoption support, parental leave and time off for dependants. Check which days are paid and which unpaid, whether there is a cap per year, and who approves requests. If you work term time only or part time, ask how days are counted, since the Green Book says part-time staff get conditions pro rata to comparable full-timers. A union representative can tell you how your council has applied the national text in practice. ACAS gives free guidance if a request is refused and you think the policy has not been applied properly.