NHS maternity pay and self employment

[Confused1987]

Hi all
Can anybody help me, after some advice about NHS OMP and self employment!
Here is my scenario:
I currently work full time for the NHS and have done so for 6 years. I am not currently pregnant however it is in the 2year plan if possible ?? after my maternity leave I fully intend to return to work full time.
I really want to become self employed and run this alongside my NHS employment. The self employment is completely different to my NHS job and requires a lot of set up time and promotion for a few months but then will tick along without too much fuss.
I see maternity as an opportunity to set up the business whilst I am not working full time.
I am keen for everything to be squeaky clean and within all legal and contractual rules but can't seem to find anything about this online and worry about approaching the HR department at this stage. I have checked the maternity policy of my trust and it remains silent on this. I have also managed to get a copy of the NHS t's and c's of employment which also does not address this....
As far as I understand you can still receive SMP and work on a self employed basis.
Can anybody offer help on this? Has anybody had a similar experience?
Sorry it's a long one and thanks in advance for the responses.

Hi,

I'm another NHS employee who was looking at similar stuff earlier this week!

In my trust maternity policy it talks about how it works if you are working for another employer during mat leave but not about it you are self-employed.

I would call your HR and check (which you can do anonymously). They will have up to date info and at least in my trust were happy to answer hypothetical questions about the policy when I wasn't pregnant (but was planning to be at some point!)

Good luck and if you can do post the answer you get. I'm sure I'm not the only non nhs person who is interested in it! (I'll need to ask myself in a few weeks when I "out" my pregnancy)