NHS Maternity leave, annual leave and sickness. SPD

[charli07985]

I am after some advice. I am currently 23 weeks pregnant. I have been told this week i have SPD. Work have been fantastic and made many changes to help with this so i can stay at work as long as possible (which i what i want to try and do).
My mat leave officially starts on my due date, i am taking the majority of my annual leave prior to my due date, which will mean me finishing work 2 days before i am 35 weeks pregnant.
Like i said i am wanting to stay at work as long as possible but understand this may become more of a challenge now that i have SPD.
My question is if i do go off sick, say at 30 weeks with this SPD and i am signed off by my GP up until when my annual leave starts, will this effect my annual leave and the ability for me to still take my annual leave prior to my mat leave?
I am concerned that they will make me take my annual leave as sick and then begin my mat leave at 36 weeks, so potentially meaning i will lose out on my annual leave????
Obviously this isnt something i am planning or wanting to happen, but what i am concerned about is that if i am at risk of losing my annual leave it will prevent me going off sick, if i really need to.
Any help or guidance would be much appreciated.

If you are sick for a pregnancy related reason, after a certain time maternity leave starts automatically, you can check the details on the .Gov website
You can carry forward any leave you don't take into next year.
Check your employer policy too.

I had spd and the same situation. You take sick leave, start compulsory mat leave at 36 weeks and keep your annual leave to use after mat leave.

I had PGP and was on sick pay until 26 weeks then mat pay from then on. They never made enough changes as my job was doing ward stock so lots of heavy lifting/bending, ladders etc. They can't use your annual leave if you're sick, even if you wanted them to.

I could be wrong but it was never an option for me.

What @OutToGetYou says is what happened to me. Although I did ask for mat leave to start ASAP as I was losing money but I imagine they'd of pushed for it otherwise.

What outtogetyou says is right, and you cab elect to start the mat leave earlier like ponderland says. Sounds like from above you want to wait as long as possible though. You could take the leave you are entitled to at the end of your mat leave instead of the front

I had similar situation and got around it with dates on sick note.
32-36wks off sick. Sick note finished 35wk6days.
36wk - ‘returned to work’ for my annual leave. Note I was not at work.
38wk - mat leave started as I had planned.
GP was fine giving me specific dates and work didn’t care (also nhs).
I didn’t want to lose mat leave before baby was born which is why I pushed for this.
Hope your pgp doesn’t get too bad x

If your baby arrives any earlier than your due date there will need to be a recalculation too - you cannot be considered to be still on annual leave not maternity leave if your baby is already out.

However, whatever happens you shouldn't lose any annual leave entitlement - any days of annual leave you have qualified for that you can't take before you are on maternity leave should get tacked on the end. You will get the same total number of days off excluding the additional days of sick leave.

You work for the nhs? You can take your annual leave at the end of your maternity leave. If off sick with pg related illness sick pay stops and mat leave kicks in at 4 weeks prior to due date unless you convince a gp to sign you back on. If they do you'd need to resume with work and then take annual leave.

I was in this exact position but not nhs, although I was public sector.

The doctor signed me off sick until the start of my annual leave which was something like 35w + 5 days. My annual leave ended on my due date and my mat leave started.

Employers cannot automatically commence your mat leave until you are 36 weeks pregnant. You may want to check the exact dates as it's something like the Sunday starting the 36th week. So if you are 36 weeks on the Thursday then it's from the Sunday before when you're still 35 weeks. So you need to make sure that any doctors note ends the Friday before. Also bear in mind that to cancel your annual leave, employers must give you double the amount of notice, so if you're taking 5 weeks of annual leave, they must give you 10 weeks notice. In your case they would need to cancel your leave by the time you are 25 weeks pregnant.

It also occurred to me when I was in your shoes that most employers wouldn't really want to be the employer that cancelled your annual leave because you're pregnant and unwell .

Ultimately being at work with spd can be hard. I had it and sciatica and was on crutches. There were days when I got stuck places and even crutches didn't help. I did too much and didn't stop soon enough. From memory I probably stopped at about 28 weeks. I was in horrific pain and even the physio didn't help. As soon as I was signed off I was able to slow down significantly. Although I was still on about 3 hours sleep and night which meant that my body just wouldn't repair properly. Be kind to yourself it's a difficult time.

Stealth, that's also not right. Your employers seem to be doing a number on you/the person you know!

Not that I'm aware of @StealthPolarBear, I've just handed my matb1 form in and I also work nhs. I've taken 1 weeks annual leave prior to going on mat leave and will take the other 6 on my return.

Be careful as some nhs trusts only allow you to carry over a weeks annual leave if you are taking a year off. You used to be able to tag any unused and accrued annual leave to the end of mat leave but the rules have changed.

Yes be careful, they may not let you take it all at the end. I think they have changed the rules. The absolute most I was allowed to carry last time was 28 days, and that was after getting the BMA involved and arguing for many months..

I'm surprised if some trusts don't let you carry it over, surely it's discrimination not to allow you the same amount of annual leave as an employee who isn't taking mat leave?

It is true as I have recently experienced it myself as has a colleague of mine.They have changed the rules which I think is discriminatory. I got the union involved and after months of talks I was given the accrued annual leave back but the policy for my particular bus trust has changed to only carry over one weeks worth of annual leave if having a year off.

Nhs trust I meant!

Can you share the exact wording of the policy? Do you mean carry over to a new leave year, or to the end of your maternity period?

Might be different in England with privatisation. I'm in Scotland where it's not a problem to take at the end.
All policies re leave should be on HR section of staffnet or ring HR for access to the policy.

I'm in Scotland too, and not able to take all the leave at the end. It is discriminatory, mat leave is a statutory right, which is what the BMA argued, but nevertheless I wasn't able to use all my annual leave, nor be paid for it in lieu.