Maternity leave questions!

[pinkie87]

I work for the NHS and I'm just a bit confused about the maternity leave situation. I am only 8+2 so can't talk to work yet obviously. I have read the policy on the intranet at work but don't really understand how you use your annual leave. I plan to go on maternity leave at about 36 weeks, which will be August. Obviously my annual leave for the year begins in April. I will probably use a week in June so I will have approx 4 weeks remaining to use by the time I go on maternity leave. When do I take this? I can't take more than 2 weeks at a time so can't stick onto the beginning of my maternity leave. Do I just have to make sure I use it up before then? And if not, do I just lose it?

And when I finish my paid maternity leave entitlement, I know people also use annual leave then to tag onto the end of their maternity leave, but do I just use what I have accrued whilst I have been off in that leave year (From april to August)? Or use my full entitlement for the next year even though it will only be August when I come to work? Sorry if these are really stupid questions.

Hi Pinkie

Where I work, any annual leave that you haven't taken before you go on Mat leave is carried forward. You then accrue leave until you come back to work. In some cases, people in my office have had in excess of 50 days leave when they come back to work!

I'm not sure if it differs from employer to employer but we are able to take outstanding AL before the Mat leave kicks in and can tag AL on to the end of Mat leave meaning you get more time off (but get paid for it!). We are also able to use the accrued leave to essentially work 'part time' by taking a day or 2 a week but get a full time salary for it. You shouldn't lose any of your AL whilst you are on Mat leave.

I would say don't panic about it just yet, but if you are worried drop your HR team a line in confidence. They will be able to explain it all to you without you having to formally mention it to your boss. Alternatively, do you have any colleagues that you can trust/confide in who have been in this situation that may be able to advise?

Hope this helps (and congratulations by the way!)

Thanks so much for the reply LittleMiss. That's good to know you can carry your leave over, I wasn't sure any companies did that. I'm not worried exactly, but confused. It may indeed be worth speaking to HR to find out exactly what happens. :)

I work for the NHS, my trust do not allow the carrying over of leave. I took 4 weeks leave (the rest of this year) before I started mat leave at 39+4. The problem with doing this is that if the baby is early it triggers your maternity leave and you can loose the annual leave. This is usually at the managers discretion.
Another alternative can be to use your leave to reduce your hours towards the end. When I was pregnant with DD and full time I had a day of leave a week for the last month. If you have an active patient care type job it can be difficult to work until very late in pregnancy. I have left at 35-36 weeks in both my pregnancies. When you come back a lot of people have a couple of weeks annual leave before they actually come back. You accrue leave while on maternity leave so will have a full amount.

I'm in the private sector and at my company any untaken annual leave at the end of the leave year gets paid rather than carried over. With DD I had probably taken 2/3rds of my leave before starting mat leave (including a week before officially starting maternity) then had a nice little lump sum at the end of March for the rest. Then starting accruing again. I didn't add any on to mat leave as was worried DD would catch loads of bugs at nursery and I'd need to use it, she's actually been ok so I've now got loads to use before the end of this March.

Bank holidays are different, AFAIK they're not allowed to pay you those so I did carry them over, they were added to my leave for this year.

I don't work for the NHS so might workplace might be different.
Ours you take before you leave. So I left early and started ML on due date. General rule is no more than 2 weeks AL at a time but this was allowed, I suppose because I was entitled to it and had to take it somewhere.

In the Trust I work for they expect you to take the amount you should have taken before you go on Mat leave, e.g. If you go on Mat leave in August you should have taken 5/12ths of your annual leave. The rest of your 2015/16 leave is then carried forward to when you come back.

When your Mat leave pay is finished it easiest to take as much annual leave as you can else you will be trying to squeeze a lot in once you are back working. However you don't have to take it all.

I'm currently on mat leave and I'm taking 5 weeks leave on the back of my mat leave but that still leaves me with 3 weeks to take between July and April.

Having read other posts it would appear that different trusts do it differently which I'm surprised at because of Agenda for Change. Even though you are only early on you can speak to HR confidentially and they will be able to tell you what the deal is in your trust.

HTH

I work for nhs too. Take it at the end of ur mat leave to extend it. That's what most of my friends did and what I plan to do. Good luck xx

Thanks all for your input! Will speak To HR .

I'm nhs, anything you accrued before mat leave had to be taken before you left, if you weren't going to be back before the Apri or lost.

Your maternity policy will be online. If you don't want to speak to hr.

I do have my mternity policy but can't see anywhere that it mentions using annual leave.

Another nhs bod here and I literally just met with HR on Monday to get my paperwork organised. My trust also insists you use any annual leave for the year before mat leave if you're not coming back before April. This means you can take a big month before you start your mat leave or as someone else suggested use it up working short weeks. I'm doing a bit of both. You will then accrue annual leave whilst you're off including the bank holidays which you can use at the end of your mat leave. My hr have been good so far with a specific maternity appointment after 20 weeks and compared to other employers we get a very good deal including KIT days, up to one month of unpaid leave per child per year until the child's 16th birthday plus the potential for occupational pay if you qualify (full pay for the first few weeks, half pay after before switching to just smp).
Good luck talking to them and don't forget your risk assessment if you're clinical or in the labs-I have one clinic in radiology plus am on the wards clinical a week and it was a godsend to know what I can-can't do
X

Interesting to read this. I am local government, and will get a new 27 days leave in April. I'm due 1st August so would ideally take 2 wks leave then start maternity at 38wks, and carry the remaining 17 days over to tag on the end. If I'm allowed! Its a lot of leave to take before August otherwise!