A project to finish during mat leave

[Blueberrywitch]

I really love my job and am the sole expert for my subject in my company. My mat leave will fall on a particular report that I need to do each year. Has anyone navigated maternity leave and done more than 10 keeping in touch days? So I could go back say, 3 days a week for a few weeks to work on a particular project, but then return to full time mat leave? I don’t want to do any business as usual work during may leave but am loathe to hand this particular project over to anyone else. Just wondering if anyone has done something similar and how that worked?

Hopefully a HR type person will be able to reply to you. I don't know specifics but I have a feeling you're not allowed to do that - it would be ending Mat Leave early. It's not something that I've heard of before.

How long post-partum will it fall? Is this your first child? You may find yourself less keen to return straight away once baby is here (not saying you definitely will but I know many women, including myself, certainly lost a bit of interest in work during the first months with my baby).

I’m not an expert at all, but recently I’ve been researching shared parental leave and you can take leave, go back to work (handing leave over to your partner), and then continue your leave.
I assume if you’re on a full time contract then you would have to be on full time hours for the period back at work though.

Alternatively could you ask your employee to be paid as a contractor for that period of stand alone work? I’m not sure how keen they would be but if it’s important work and you’re the sole expert, maybe they’ll be delighted to have that option.

It does sound like a complicated one, I hope you find a good solution!

You can’t do more than 10 KIT days without it ending your mat leave early so your best bet is to do shared parental leave. Completely understand not wanting to hand a project that is your specialism over to someone else!

Yes you could do shared parental leave, which allows you to give time up to your partner but also stop maternity and then go back onto shared parental leave.

on the ShPP you can also take 20KIT days rather than just 10. Also you could use some of your annual leave if you are full time and have it to spare. Eg work 2-3 days and take the other two days per week as AL?

Yes go for shared parental leave then you can take it in blocks (as long as your company agrees)

Yes, shared parental leave is the way. Also be aware that birth and a new baby can really impact the clarity if your mind and ability to do heavy intellectual work for a reasonable chunk of time. For me this was something like 8 weeks before I felt like I could fill out a form or write an email with any speed or confidence. I found this period really distressing because I am a very intellectual person was managing our kitchen renovations and my (otherwise delightful) builder thought I was indecisive, forgetful and not very good at getting things done. I spoke to a bunch of other women about it and seems it wasn't super uncommon and from a small sample seemed to me like it was maybe tied to having a significant bleed at birth. So, maybe make a back up plan if it is very early in the baby's life. I would have very happily done a piece of work from 3 months post-birth.