Redunancy on Maternity Leave

[RoseDeWittBukater]

I realise this is a sticky subject, please don't think that we're horrible employers, we're really not.

Our nanny is pregnant, we are extremely pleased for her and she'll be a wonderful Mum. We are now wondering if we are able to make her redundant when she is on Maternity Leave though? We were always planning to make the change to using a nursery soon, as our youngest child can then avail of the free hours offered and it becomes more financially viable for us. This was planned, though we hadn't yet discussed with the nanny as she's a relatively new starter.

We hadn't entirely decided what to do but it seems to be making more sense as time goes on, especially when the 30 hours allowance is introduced.

Are we still legally allowed to make the nanny redundant if she's on ML? Please note her pregnancy has absolutely no bearing on this, we would be changing provider regardless of her having babies or not.

Thanks

Yes you can make someone redundant whilst they are on maternity leave.
This may be a useful read.
Maternity Action: Redundancy during pregnancy and maternity leave.

Talk to your payroll provider, they will be able to tell you how it will work. Once she is getting SMP she will continue to get that until it ends. HMRC will have paid you the SMP in bulk, so you need to talk to your payroll provider about how you would pay that to the nanny once the decision over redundancy has been made.

30 hours nursery education will be Term Time only. Some providers may be able to split it out over the year but the total hours involved will be the same.

Does your nanny only work 9am-3pm? If not then would you not still be needing some childcare even with the 30 hours nursery education?

You mention that your youngest can use the nursery... what about your other child/children? They may be at school but would you need before/after school care, and/or care during school holidays?

You need to look at the big picture of your childcare needs now, in 6 months time and in a year or so time. Your needs will probably keep changing, so your childcare provider may need to keep changing.

I was made redundant as a pregnant nanny. The child went to nursery so there was no position for me anymore. I think if you go on to re advertise and employ a nanny you have to offer the position to the old nanny first. I got maternity allowance rather than smp.
Do tell her ASAP so she knows, I doubt there is much danger of her leaving until her maternity starts but I'm sure she would appreciate knowing so she can plan financially.

Thanks Nick, we have looked at all the childcare required and our total cost overall would be substantially less than we currently pay. We do not have full time care, no.

We would of course keep her in the loop.

Thanks all for your responses, very helpful:

daffy, why did you not get smp, only ma

so you lost 6 weeks of 90% pay?

As I remember i didn't get smp because they made me redundant early on, something to do with qualifying weeks maybe? I had to tell them early on in my pg as I was throwing up every day, it' was quite difficult to hide my og when I was throwing up in someone else's house each day.

thats unfair esp if you have worked for years and paid tax and ni