Civil service: what if my team moves gov dept during mat leave?

[scribblescribbling]

Currently TTC so this is hypothetical, but I’d feel better if I knew the answer as it’s really worrying me.

If you’re a civil servant and are on mat leave, what happens if your team and the thing you work on are transferred to another civil service organisation while you are on leave? For example because the area you work on is now the responsibility of another agency, or because of a cabinet reshuffle?

If you take the full leave and aren’t automatically entitled to get the same job back, where would you have the right to return to - the original dept or the new one?

Asking because the first situation is a possibility for my team, and I don’t know how to find CS-specific advice. Does anyone here know? There’s nothing on my department’s intranet. I’ve heard there’s an established process for the second scenario but can’t find anything about that anywhere either. And I assume people like ACAS can’t advise on this. So thanks for any help!

(I know there’s a CS Reddit page but I’ve seen some appallingly inaccurate advice on there!)

Bump. Saw another thread about civil service mat leave get replies the other day and was hoping some of the same people might see this!

It's difficult to answer considering its hypothetical, however they would normally follow HR guidance which you should be able to access. Unless someone here works in HR for your specific department none of us will be able to garantee what will happen.
It also would potentially depends how far into your maternity leave you are, I believe if you take x amount of time you're entitled to return to the same job so if your team transferred you'd go with them, however after x amount of time you're entitled to return to the same grade but not necessarily the same job.
I've had 2 maternity leaves whilst working for the civil service, I got a promotion during the first maternity and changed teams during the 2nd (more convenient for me location wise on my return) x

Thanks for your reply. I’ve looked through all the HR guidance and none of it covers this or MOG.

You would be moved under current headcount normally. Therefore under new department but if a mobile grade can be disbursed to any job of that grade in that department on return depending on length of time off.
You can email hr and get the sections of employee handbook and responses in writing via the online tool (department depending)

Thanks but it definitely isn’t in our HR handbook.

Are you on metis in your department? Raise a request and hr should respond or point you to it. Its hit and miss but they ahve been pretty good with pregnancy related stuff generally

No; currently TTC and worried about this though. Thanks!

I don't know for all departments, but where I work the unit I work in keeps a post available. On a rare occasion a post might be the wider Directorate if the role needs to be permanently filled but in majority of circumstances a post has been kept in the team or wider unit. In those scenarios it sounds like that post might therefore move - but not a HR advisor, just a manager whose had a baby and dealt with others on mat leave!
Hope you get some answers.

Have you got a HRBP you could raise a question with?

I don’t want to ask HR when I’m still TTC. Hence asking on here.

I work in a specialised digital role. There are only two of us in my dept. If my role moves elsewhere I’m not sure they’ll have a job for me

I mean if I don’t move with it.

I don’t understand why there isn’t any easily available info about MOG and maternity leave, thanks anyway folks

Just had a quick Google and found this. It's MHRA but imagine this might be pretty standard. Not sure it deals with the exact scenario but might be useful.

If you exercise your right to return to work after ordinary maternity leave (i.e. the first 26 weeks of maternity leave) you are entitled to return to the same job on the same terms and conditions of employment as if you had not been on maternity leave, unless a redundancy situation has arisen. In these circumstances you would be offered a suitable alternative vacancy.

After additional maternity leave (i.e. the period up to 52 weeks) you are entitled to return to work to the same job on the same terms and conditions as if you had not been on maternity leave, unless there is some reason why it is not reasonably practicable for you to do so. In this case you will normally be employed in the same general location but not necessarily in the same post as before. In any event, you will be treated for posting and transfer purposes no less favourably than if you had not been on maternity leave.

Thanks, does that mean if I take the full year I would have to be offered a job back at the old location and not the new one my team moved to, if they moved?

That would be how I interpret it, but hard to know specifics for your department without seeing a policy.

my Department moved (due to office closure) when I was on maternity leave. I got cornered by a lovely HR lady in the loos who said

your situation pauses when you go, so essentially when you chose to return, you can either accept redundancy or the new package to move sites. My role was held (laughable in reality) and I chose redundancy as the move would not work with a baby - and they’d made it really fucking awkward to return.

i know that’s quite specific to my situation and it depends on your policies etc.