Maternity pay & NHS

[AnnaC2020]

Hi there

My friend works for NHS Scotland and is currently on a fixed term contract

She wants to start trying for a baby in the next 2 years, but was wondering if she gets a permanent NHS job after being on FTC will her FTC go towards her continued service so she can get NHS maternity pay?

That’s a bit confusing, so what I’m saying is she’s applying for a perm job within the NHS after being on fixed term for 6 months. You need to be with the NHS for 12 months before being able to get their maternity pay so will her fixed term job go towards this 12 months or will the 12 months start once she’s got a perm job? Thanks :)

I’m not sure about the NHS but in my company (large corporate) FTC would count towards your service as long as you’re employed directly by the company and not via an agency.

Might be best to ask HR?

Yes it would count towards her continuous service. Her service counts at the start of when she started working, it is not dependent on the type of contract.

As long as she doesn't have a gap in service, it counts from when she started working. Even if she gets one fixed term job after another, she should be considered a permanent employee after 2 years. In the trust where I work people get changed to a permanent contract after 2 years service. I don't know how long you can have as a gap between jobs for it not to be counted as a gap in service. A week or a month maybe. I'm sure the maternity policy talks about how long you need to have worked there and doesn't mention you needing to have a particular kind of contract. You can Google to see the nhs maternity policy and she should be able to find it on the intranet at work too.