Written by Heidi Wadsworth | 26th January 2023

The National Education Union has confirmed a number of strikes are set to take place in February and March for schools across England and Wales.

Teachers across Scotland and Northern Ireland have also voted for strike action during January, February and March.

For some schools there may be little or no impact from strike action, but others may be drastically affected.

When will teachers be striking?

Strike action will take place on:

  • Wednesday 1st February (schools in both England and Wales)
  • Tuesday 14th February (schools in Wales and not England)
  • Tuesday 28th February (schools in the north and north-west of England, Yorkshire and Humber)
  • Wednesday 1st March (schools in East Midlands, West Midlands and eastern England)
  • Thursday 2nd March (schools in London, South East and South West)
  • Wednesday 15th March (schools in both England and Wales)
  • Thursday 16th March (schools in both England and Wales)

The Government has said schools will need to take all reasonable steps to stay open for as many pupils as possible. However, we still expect to see major disruption to working parents and their employers.

Here are five ways you can support your people:

Home working

As we saw during the pandemic, disruption to normal childcare routines does not necessarily mean that a parent cannot work.

If it is possible for employees to work from home, you may decide that this is the most practical approach during strike days for employees who are otherwise unable to work as normal. You may have already introduced a home and hybrid working policy as part of your benefits package which could apply in these circumstances.

It’s important to remember that if an employee has young children at home due to school closures, it may be difficult for them to work from home effectively. In this case they may need temporary flexibility to carry out their work – or a day off work.

You should start conversations with your teams now to see what arrangements will need to be made.

Paid holiday

Your employee may wish to request a day’s annual leave – taken from their normal holiday entitlement. If they can, they should give notice that is equal to twice the number of days’ leave that they wish to take.

Operating a first come, first served policy around holiday requests is usually the fairest way to manage a situation where multiple parents might want to take holiday at the same. But we also recommend you try to grant these requests where possible.

Unpaid leave

If your employee doesn’t want to use their holiday, or doesn’t have enough holiday remaining, they can request unpaid leave. As an employer, you can decide if you want to grant this additional unpaid holiday as it is not a statutory right.

If an employee makes a request for unpaid time off to look after their children, then it is usually a good idea to accommodate them.

Time off for dependents

Time off for dependents or dependent leave is unpaid time off (unless you have a policy of paying for this leave). It’s designed to deal with emergency situations where childcare falls through unexpectedly. Your employees have a statutory right to take time off for dependents it applies to all employees – whether permanent, temporary, full time or part time – and there is no length of employment requirement.

While planned strike action may not ordinarily fall within the remit of this sort of leave, as the dates aren’t unexpected, schools may not know until the last minute whether they can remain open for all students. We would advise that parents or carers who need to provide childcare on the strike days should be given the opportunity to use this leave if they do not wish to take paid holiday.

In summary

In this period of strike action by teachers and school staff, we advise you are flexible and support your employees in caring for their children. We suggest you talk with parents now about how any strike action might impact them and try to work together to find a solution that supports the employee, while causing minimal disruption to the business.

If you need any advice about supporting working parents amid the teacher strikes, get in touch with our team at info@realityhr.co.uk.