NHS maternity leave and return to work to then leave

[TwinmumJ]

I have been employed by the NHS for almost 15 years. I am now on maternity leave from full time nurse, as I had twins April this year - planned to take the full maternity leave. Unexpectedly we have now decided to relocate back to where my family lives - however many of the healthcare jobs there are non NHS. My plan was to return to work pt time - and spread my a/l I'd accrued over the year (33+9bh) over 24 hours a week, due the cost of childcare and I'm not going to have any more children. That would equate to another 13 weeks off - ( and thus I was thinking would cover the mandatory need to work for the NHS 3 months post mat leave). That seems a reasonable request if I was planning on returning to my job but now I am planning on leaving - will this still be possible without being penalised?

I am not sure I follow all the detail re. annual leave. When I was in this position it was only a few weeks you had to work to avoid the clawing maternity pay back thing. You don't have to go back full time. I heard later that in reality the trusts can't really enforce the return of maternity pay if you do leave straight after maternity leave but that's just anecdotal.

I'm not sure I follow exactly, will you return to work for 3 months? Albeit part time?

Yes 24 hrs

@TwinmumJ just to clarify you are proposing to return to work part time 24 hours. You are required to work 13 weeks or repay occupational maternity pay. You have 33 days + 9 days annual leave accrued.

I assume the accrued leave is 41 days x 7.5 hours = 307.5 hours which when divided by 24 hours = 12.81 weeks. If it’s 8 hours then it’s 13.66 weeks. Plus you will accrue annual leave during the 13 weeks.

What you are proposing seems sensible to me and is what I would suggest if I was your HR Adviser. I am public sector but not NHS, I would suggest this is quite common in the NHS.

My advice is to pick up the phone and talk to HR explain you are planning to make a flexible working request to work 24 hours on your return. State you are planning to take your accrued leave from x to y which is the required 13 week period for OMP. I would then tell them you are considering resigning with your last day as the end of the 13 weeks and see what they say. Unless they say otherwise follow up with an email confirming your plans and resignation.

The advice I was given when I dropped from full to part time in the nhs was that annual leave had to be used before a change in contract.

you cannot change your contract - you HAVE to request a FWP in which this can be denied however there is no limit to how many you try to get accepted. You are required to work 13 weeks when you officially go off maternity leave in which if you are requesting an FWP they expect you to take your accrued leave in a block using it up before they will put you on your new FWP changes. If you terminate your employment without completing the 13 weeks you can be liable to pay back the OMP not the SMP however in some cases they can drop this for reasons. Annual leave, sick leave, unpaid leave, parental leave and special leave all count towards your 13 weeks of employment. Best advice is to get in contact with your line manager or a hr representative to ask these question or obtain the policy’s to have a read through! You could ask a union rep also if you apart of one to help you out!

im going through something similar right now and just asked these questions :-) hope this helps!