In case you missed it: 2024 summer term education updates

Jill Donabie, partner in our education team, summarises the key education guidance updates from the summer term.

Pregnancy, family leave and pay

The EHRC has published updated guidance for employers relating to pregnant employees and employees entitled to family leave and pay. This includes the following:

• ‘Pregnancy and maternity: Pregnancy’, which summarises an employer's key obligations in relation to pregnant employees and advises employers on how to avoid pregnancy and maternity discrimination.
• ‘Pregnancy, adoption and maternity: Return to work’, which explains an employer's obligations to new parents returning to work after they have taken leave due to pregnancy, adoption or maternity.
• ‘Maternity, paternity, adoption or shared parental leave and pay’, which covers an employer's duties in relation to pay for family-related leave.

As well as providing advice for employers on managing their legal obligations towards employees who are pregnant or who are taking family-related leave, the updated guidance provides worked examples of typical scenarios and highlights good practice.

Flexible working

In April 2024, the statutory right to request flexible working became a day-one right for employees.

Following this, Acas published a revised Acas Code of Practice on requests for flexible working. The Code encourages employers to take a positive approach to flexible working so that requests are not rejected by default without due consideration and an open dialogue about what may be workable.

It is important for employers to comply with the Code as any breach may be considered by an employment tribunal for relevant cases.

Acas has also published new detailed guidance to accompany the Code, which provides practical examples for employers and employees on flexible working requests.

Carers leave

Also in April, the statutory right to carer's leave came into force and Acas published guidance providing some further detail.

For example, it summarises an employee's rights during carer's leave, sets out some examples of how employees with different working patterns may choose to take leave and includes a table confirming how much notice should be provided.

Acas confirms that employers do not have to pay employees for carer's leave but suggests that they may choose to do so. It also encourages employers to be flexible over carer's leave where possible, noting that employees may need to take leave at short notice.

Keeping children safe in education (KCSIE)

The Department for Education (DfE) has published the updated statutory guidance for schools and colleges in England on safeguarding children and safer recruitment – KCSIE 2024.

This will come into force in September 2024. Until then, KCSIE 2023 remains in force. Annex F to the updated guidance sets out the substantive changes in the new guidance and where it differs from the September 2023 version.

For more information, please contact Jill using [email protected] or 0191 211 7933.