NHS maternity advice

jemmima

I am wondering if anyone is able to give me advice regarding Maternity benefits within the NHS.

I have been working for the NHS since March this year, In Sept I am due to leave the job for an apprenticeship in another hospital which is fixed for 1 year.
I am unsure whether this counts as continuous employment and what my Maternity rights would be because it is an apprenticeship with a fixed and date. I will be staying within the NHS after the apprenticeship but I dont know where I would stand if i was to start a family.

'Im working hard and dont want to end up with minimum benefits if i choose to start a family soon.

Does anyone have any experience or knowledge of a similar situation??

Thanks

Jarndyce

I suggest you ring your HR department or your union.

You will more than likely get a lot of people guessing the answer on here whereas only people with detailed knowledge of the precise terms of the NHS maternity scheme will actually know the answer. What constitutes continuous employment for some legal purposes, for example, may not be so for contractual maternity pay purposes, so you need to be sure, and that info is best obtained from your employer.

SarEl

Noty only do I agree with Jarndyce - I would go a bit further. DO NOT ask HR - unless you are already pregnant I might suggest that telling them you are planning on starting a family and taking maternity leave after six months only of employment may not go down as a casula enquiry - it may go down as a !here two minutes and already planning lengthy paid leaves"!!! If you aren't a union member JOIN ONE! Then ask them the question!

Jarndyce

SarEl wrote: »

Noty only do I agree with Jarndyce - I would go a bit further. DO NOT ask HR - unless you are already pregnant I might suggest that telling them you are planning on starting a family and taking maternity leave after six months only of employment may not go down as a casula enquiry - it may go down as a !here two minutes and already planning lengthy paid leaves"!!! If you aren't a union member JOIN ONE! Then ask them the question!

I'm quite surprised to see you saying that, SarEl, and have to disagree - sorry!

The NHS is a large employer with a high proportion of female staff and will be used to this sort of enquiry. Ringing the Trust's HR department can be done virtually anonymously - they would not be likely to even keep a record of the call - its just someone asking for factual information. I would have no qualms about them ringing HR. More likely to get the right answer from them than from a local union rep who may not have come across that set of circumstances before.

SarEl

I am afraid that these days I would. The NHS is shedding staff like there are no tomorrows (which the way things are going, there may well be none). If it can be done anonymously (which you didn't say) then fine - but in my experience the first question asked is "Who am I speaking to". Despite assertions to the contrary, there has not been such a beast as a "safe public sector job" for many decades - right now that is more true than ever. When I see nurses being dragged through capability processes for physical problems that are quite clearly work related injuries, and dismissed for being too unfit to do the job that injured them (which my colleague is dealing with on an almost day to day basis now) rather than being made redundant or redeployed, then I am afraid that my trust of NHS HR would struggle to get any lower.

getmore4less

There are loads of NHS policies on-line so you generaly don't need to ask for most things

They will all be based on some central policy with potentialy some local additions.

read a few to get the picture

eg NNUH
http://www.google.co.uk/url?q=http://www.nnuh.nhs.uk/viewdoc.asp%3FID%3D62%26t%3DTrustDoc&sa=U&ei=SUFWTobDAYbF8QOdhLCmDA&ved=0CBUQFjAA&usg=AFQjCNFnzrbZrx1K7gWdb2KnrnwoseMiew

covers fixed term and training contracts

clairec79

When I changed trusts my continous employment went from the start of the first job (because I went from one on a Saturday to the next on the Sunday) - the time where I did bank work before (despite overlapping) didn't.
I know those who went and did midwifery training after nursing (so had a 18month contract to cover their training) didn't have a break in emplyment as long as one contract finished the day before the next started.

When you get your new contract in September it should state the start date of your employment with the NHS

Jarndyce

clairec79 wrote: »

When I changed trusts my continous employment went from the start of the first job (because I went from one on a Saturday to the next on the Sunday) - the time where I did bank work before (despite overlapping) didn't.
I know those who went and did midwifery training after nursing (so had a 18month contract to cover their training) didn't have a break in emplyment as long as one contract finished the day before the next started.

When you get your new contract in September it should state the start date of your employment with the NHS

As predicted, these sort of answers are going to muddy the waters rather than clarify things for the OP.

As I have already said, continuous employment for employment law purposes (eg statutory redundancy pay) does not necessarily equal sufficient continuous service for employers' maternity pay purposes.

For example, I know of one public sector scheme where there are four levels of maternity benefit based on a) your actual continuous employment in local government and related bodies and b) how long you have worked for that particular authority/body. Your statement of terms and conditions (or 'contract') will normally only state the first figure.