I'm confused about mat leave entitlement!

[HavingALittleFaithBaby]

I'm 20 weeks and looking at how much leave I want to take. I know when I want to start my leave - using some holiday and then starting annual leave - and I'll be telling them those dates in a couple of weeks. Do I have to declare how long I plan to have off when I tell them when I'm going on mat leave? Or nearer when I plan to come back? I work for the NHS.

No they should assume you want to take the full year. But you have to give a certain amount of notice as to when you want to come back if it is earlier than a year - I think its 8weeks off the top of my head. If you are taking annual leave bolted on to maternity leave then obviously you need to let them know when.

Ah that's really helpful cheers. We're debating if we can afford to stretch to 8 months so I can come back after Christmas! I'm due end of April so I'm using in the end of this year and the start of next year before I go on mat assuming the baby doesn't come early!

Assume nothing where babies are concerned!!!

I should have put unless rather than assuming! I know it'll come when it's good and ready unless they have to send a search part like they did with DNephew!

Don't forget your holiday still accrues while you are off. So if your holiday year runs jan - dec you will effectively have all of 2013 holiday to use before you go. If it runs April to march then you can use your remainder of this years hol before you go and then the 2013-14 accrued stuff to lengthen mat leave. The holiday entitlemt is contractual and statutory too

I work for the NHS too. In addition to what's already been said, last pregnancy I had 4 weeks annual leave planned before I started mat leave at 39 weeks. Unfortunately DS came 6 weeks early, but I was allowed to carry that annual leave over and tag it onto the end of my mat leave due to it being "extenuating circumstances".

In addition to what bionic said. Out hol year runs jan-dec with no carry over allowed. I have been on may leave since 5th jan this year. I asked about carry over as essentially if I take my 52 weeks mat leave I have no ability to take my holiday within the year. Our HR said that if I was off sick there was law to say carry over is allowed. There is no such law for maternity but they decided that if it applies to sick leave, it should apply to maternity otherwise it could be discrimination