NHS extending maternity leave

SamDude

Hi all,

A question from a friend who wishes to remain anonymous, so lets call her Beth.

She works in the NHS and has taken 12 months maternity leave, the last 3 months of it have been unpaid.
The maternity leave is ending soon and she is due to return to work soon, but has childcare issues and will not have a nanny or nursery place for a few more weeks.

She has worked in the NHS for around 10 years and she has been paid the enhanced maternity pay. She knows that it will be claimed back if she does not return to work. While looking through the NHS “Agenda for Change”(?) employment terms, it states that she must return back to work within 15 months or the pay will be clawed back.

She is trying to extend the unpaid leave (or parental leave) by 3 months and then return to work within the 15 months so her maternity pay does not need to be paid back.

Her line manager is not being sympathetic to her request. She does not think the 15 months leave request is within the HR policy and has escalated it to HR to confirm (even though it is 12 months maternity with 3 months unpaid leave added on). In the meantime, the line manager has given the option to return to work (either full time or part time) or find other employment in the NHS. This is very upsetting and unfortunately the HR person has not been around so it has been sitting in limbo for a few weeks as the line manager has not chased it. Beth is surprised that there is only one HR person that can deal with it and nothing has been done for 7/8 weeks since she asked for the extra leave with plenty of notice. Beth thinks it may be a delaying tactic and she will then be given the ultimatum to return to work or leave her job when the 12 months are up.

In summary, Beth has taken 12 months maternity leave and is asking for 3 months additional unpaid leave – this will be just under 15 months, which means she can return to work without the enhanced maternity pay being clawed back.

She enjoys her job and was looking forward to returning to work, but the situation and treatment by her manager is making her very stressed.

Can someone with HR knowledge (particularly in NHS HR?) help answer if this request is possible and reasonable?, and if Beth has any additional or protected rights due to her maternity? (e.g. higher consideration for her parental/unpaid leave request, not being told to reduce her hours or basically leave).

Thanks all.

Undervalued

Maybe a NHS contract gives additional rights over and above statutory? However unless it does then I think the answer is no.

Broadly you have no right to unpaid leave (except for short periods in emergency situations with dependants). Obviously you have a right to your annual paid leave but the employer can dictate when you may take it.

Also broadly your right is to your original job back after maternity (if reasonably possible). There is no automatic right to reduced hours etc.

There is also a right to have a request for flexible working considered which is not the same thing as a right to flexible working!

LemonSocks

As far as I'm aware, you do have a right to 18 weeks unpaid parental leave before the child is 5, however you can only take 4 weeks per year (that is the standard government guideline - you will need to check your contract if for any variants to that).


Maternity will end after 52 weeks, and then you can request the parental leave. However the employer can still deny the request if there is a good reason (such as business needs) and suggest a different date.

Undervalued

LemonSocks wrote: »

As far as I'm aware, you do have a right to 18 weeks unpaid parental leave before the child is 5, however you can only take 4 weeks per year.


Maternity will end after 52 weeks, and then you can request the parental leave. However the employer can still deny the request if there is a good reason (such as business needs) and suggest a different date.

OK, that should probably have been on my list but even so it doesn't solve her problem.

LemonSocks

Undervalued wrote: »

OK, that should probably have been on my list but even so it doesn't solve her problem.

It depends what's in her policies. I've just looked at mine (Local Government) and I could take 18 weeks in a block if I wished.


OP - Ask her to check the policy for confirmation, then share that with the manager. As mentioned, there may be a business need to decline it but the manager would need to justify that.

polgara

General NHS is 4 weeks for the majority (18 weeks for parents of a disabled child). Not being totally unsympathetic but why hasn't she got arrangements in place? Our policy is that you have to give 4 weeks notice and it can be deferred for up to 6 months which wouldn't help your friend. Does she have any accrued annual leave that she could offer to take as that would reduce the impact later in the year?

MonkeyDr

Surely she has accrued annual leave while on maternity leave?

I accrued 40 days of AL while on NHS maternity leave. My official return to work date was at one point, although I actually started back on the wards 8 weeks later (and I got paid for those weeks too).

I would have thought that that could buy her some breathing space?
MD

Traceyg

Has she not got any accrued leave that she can take? I work for the NHS and have taken 12 months which ends this week and I have 5 weeks 3 days leave tagged onto the end of maternity leave (would have had 6 weeks 3 days but took a week before starting maternity.)

How come she has not got childcare in place? I'm currently going through flexible working to reduce my hours/days down as I simply cannot afford to place my baby in nursery for the full week.

SamDude

I've checked and she has/will be using up her accrued annual leave, so the 12 months taken is actually about 13 months including this.

She registered at the chosen nursery months ago but they will not have a place available until after July/August (makes sense as that is when children leave for school or holidays).
When she became aware of this a few weeks ago, she contacted her line manager.

So the gap between the expected return to work in June, and when a nursery place is likely to be available approx end of July/August, is around 3 months.

She doesn't want to 'throw' her child in another nursery and then move to the chosen nursery as it would disrupt the environment and settling in. It was selected for good reasons (location, reputation...)

She said that she would consider reduced hours, but still has no available childcare until around August.

Undervalued

SamDude wrote: »

So the gap between the expected return to work in June, and when a nursery place is likely to be available approx end of July/August, is around 3 months.

She doesn't want to 'throw' her child in another nursery and then move to the chosen nursery as it would disrupt the environment and settling in. It was selected for good reasons (location, reputation...)

She said that she would consider reduced hours, but still has no available childcare until around August.

None of which is her employer's problem!

So she is relying on their goodwill. I am struggling to see much of an argument if, for whatever reason, they decide to be less accommodating.

MonkeyDr

Our preferred nursery couldn't give us a place for quite as soon as we wanted it. We had to find another one. These things happen.

As it turns out our first choice offered us a place 3 months later. At which point our son was fully settled and very happy where he was, so we didn't move him.

NHS maternity packages are quite generous, but a right to 52 weeks (plus accrued leave) is in the national Ts&Cs. I'm afraid that she will have to find a solution that allows her meet her obligations for a timely return if she wants to ultimately keep her job and not repay the maternity pay.