Childcare & Return to work

[SpringBird]

Hello all, I’m getting rather confused so after some advise. My 9m paid stat maternity leave ends 27th March. I was planning on taking 3m extended leave and returning to work end of June when baby is 1.

I’ve had confirmation today, my baby has secured a place with the childminder who my elder daughter had, this will be from April (I must take the space to secure it as I really want her with this particular minder till she is 3 and can go to nursery.

So, my question is, I’m aware I need to have ‘returned to work’ by 30th April to get the funded 15 hours. I have 3 weeks annual leave to take. Can I take this annual leave w/c 28th April, after 1 month unpaid, then do 2 KIT days per week to take me up to my return to work date end of June? Or will these KIT days not be counted as ‘return to work’ therefore not eligible for the funded 15 hours?

Thanks for reading and any advice ☺️

You're best off giving childcare choices a call, they are very helpful and will give the most accurate advice for your individual situation.

I’m also on maternity leave currently and my understanding is that no, you couldn’t do it this way round because once you take your annual leave from 28th you are then “back to work”, so you can’t then use your KIT days after that because using your annual leave ends your maternity leave so the KIT days then disappear.

No, kit days can only be used while off work on maternity. And you would need to use annual leave at the end of it.

Depends on what your employer is happy with, but could you do a staggered return to work? Either 1 or 2 days a week, using annual leave around that. Or the minimum is equivalent of 16 hours on living wage, so could be less than 16 if you earn more than LW, if your employer allows this.

Kit days are only in maternity leave, so if you return to work you won’t get kit days. You need to return to work to get the funded hours, and also earn the minimum amount for the hours too.

It's pretty clever the lengths people will go to to get free childcare.