Appraising staff on maternity, paternity and adoption leave

Understand your legal responsibilities for performance managing teachers on maternity leave. Plus, get tips on how to schedule meetings and set appraisal targets for staff on maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave.

Last reviewed on 6 February 2023
School types: All · School phases: All
Ref: 9469
Contents
  1. Your requirements 
  2. Consider holding appraisals before your teacher goes on leave
  3. Reassess appraisal targets to make them achievable

Your requirements 

You must treat staff who are pregnant or on maternity leave equally with other staff (Equality Act 2010, chapter 2, section 17 to 18) and avoid:

  • Direct discrimination – for example, by denying pay progression because a teacher was not appraised due to maternity leave
  • Indirect discrimination – for example, by failing to take into account illness associated with pregnancy

The 'protected period' for maternity begins 'when the pregnancy begins', and ends when they return to work or at the end of their additional maternity leave period (section 18 (6)).

Include teachers on maternity leave in your appraisal process

When a member of staff is on maternity leave (or other types of long-term leave for parents), you should:

When they return, you must give them any

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