Teachers' sick pay

Teachers in local authority maintained schools in England and Wales get sick pay under the national conditions known as the Burgundy Book. In your first year you get 25 working days on full pay and, once you have four calendar months’ service, 50 working days on half pay. From your fourth year it rises to 100 working days on full pay and 100 on half pay.

The Burgundy Book scale

Year of service	Full pay	Half pay
1st year	25 working days	50 working days (after 4 calendar months’ service)
2nd year	50 working days	50 working days
3rd year	75 working days	75 working days
4th year onwards	100 working days	100 working days

The allowances are in working days, so a teacher with four or more years’ service can be off on full pay for roughly half of the 195-day school year before dropping to half pay. The first year is much thinner. Twenty-five working days is about five school weeks.

Previous service as a teacher with other local authorities normally counts towards your year of service. Your employer or local authority HR will confirm what they recognise.

Who the Burgundy Book covers

The Burgundy Book is a national agreement on teachers’ conditions in maintained schools in England and Wales. It sits alongside the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document, which covers pay and working time. The sick pay scheme is part of most maintained school teachers’ contracts through the local authority.

Academies are not bound by it. Most academy trusts copy the Burgundy Book sick pay scale into their contracts, especially for staff who transferred from maintained schools, but some have changed it. If you are moving to an academy, read the sickness section of the contract before you sign. Our guide to academies and maintained schools goes through the other differences.

Independent schools set their own terms. Teachers in Scotland are covered by the SNCT scheme and teachers in Northern Ireland by their own national agreement, and both have different sick pay arrangements.

How it fits with SSP

Statutory Sick Pay is counted inside Burgundy Book sick pay, not added to it. It may show on your payslip during sickness, but your total does not go up. After your full pay and half pay run out, you may still get Statutory Sick Pay of up to £123.25 a week until you reach 28 weeks of SSP.

Supply teachers employed through an agency, and those paid by the day without a contract, are not usually covered by the Burgundy Book scheme. They may get SSP if they count as employees for SSP purposes, which agency workers do. See supply teaching explained for how supply contracts work.

Reporting sickness and evidence

Your school’s absence policy says who to contact and by when, usually before the start of the school day so cover can be arranged. You can self-certify for the first 7 calendar days. After that you need a fit note, which can come from a doctor, nurse, occupational therapist, pharmacist or physiotherapist.

If the fit note says you may be fit for work with adjustments, such as a phased return or a reduced timetable, the head or your line manager should talk to you about what the school can offer. Occupational health referrals are common for longer absences.

Accidents and assaults at work

The Burgundy Book has separate provisions for absence caused by an accident at work, an assault or an industrial disease. In those cases the absence may be treated differently from ordinary sickness when your allowance is counted. If you were injured at school, report it through the school’s accident procedure and raise it with HR when you go off sick, so it is recorded correctly from the start. A union rep from the NEU, NASUWT, NAHT or ASCL can help if the school does not apply these provisions.

Pension and long-term sickness

Teachers’ Pension Scheme contributions are based on the pay you actually receive. On half pay your contributions fall, and on nil pay they stop. The Teachers’ Pension Scheme has rules on how sickness absence affects your service and on ill-health retirement if you cannot return to teaching.

Long or repeated absence can lead to a formal capability process. You have the right to be accompanied at formal meetings, and if your absence is related to a disability, the school must consider reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010.