Secondment with pay cut?

[Englishgirlinwales22]

Hi
I have been working as a band 4 medical secretary for the past 3 years and earn 19944 a year. I am due to have a incremental rise in December when my salary should go up to 20638
I have recently been successful in gaining a place on the nhs graduate scheme (band 5) and received a confirmation letter stating my starting salary would be 19530. I queried this as on the application it clearly stated that existing employees could negotiate their starting salary. I have now received an email stating that my salary would be at 19530, ultimately meaning I will take a 60 a month pay cut.

To make matters even more complicated I am currently on maternity leave and so do not have ready access to the hr policies etc.

If I appealed this decision do I have a leg to stand on? Does the fact I am going on secondment have any impact on anything?
Any advice greatly appreciated

I'm assuming the secondment is entirely optional? If it is, and you could go back to your normal job on your normal salary, then it's an internal policy issue only, rather than a legal one.

The only exception really would be if you have any reason to think the fact that they won't increase your starting salary is because you are on maternity leave, but it doesn't sound as though that's the case from what you say. I would imagine that in the current economic climate they've been advised not to increase salaries in this way.

If you can't access policies from home (NHS policies are usually googleable I find) then presumably you could ask for the relevant one?

Is the secondment a job or a training programme? My employer (large public body) runs a graduate training programme and foundation degree, which are paid and taxed differently to salaried roles as they are training.