Back to different NHS trust after mat leave

[ChikiTIKI]

I am asking quite a specific question here but wondering if anyone out there had experience of this...

I am on mat leave from an office job at an NHS hospital and my year of leave will be up after the summer. We have been discussing my desire to go down to 4 days per week and initial discussions indicate this won't be accommodated. I will go ahead with a formal request but fully expect it to be declined.

In my mat leave contract it says I need to return to any NHS employer for at least 3 months after mat leave to ensure I don't have to pay back the maternity payments I received (the ones that were in addition to statutory pay).

So my question is, has anyone else gone back to work in the NHS but in a different hospital or department? Were there any disagreements about your mat pay and if you should pay it back? What was the response to you doing this? I imagine the management won't be pleased with me if I take this route but I don't want to stay in a full time job if it doesn't work for my family.

If anyone has similar stories too I would love to hear how you handled it :) thanks!

My friend did this - no problems at all. No issues with pay as far as I'm aware. I think the main point they care about is the 3 months. Good luck.

I’m in the same boat and am fairly sure with the agenda for change their won’t be anything to say about moving Trust’s. In my case they definitely aren’t going to be happy but like you if they’ve turned down a flex work request and a different trust can offer you what you want why wouldn’t you move.

^ there not their... baby brain

Thanks so much for responding, that's made me feel a lot better. I think my best bet might actually be to move departments but stay in the same hospital at least at first. What I think I will do is go down the formal request route with my department and if it's a "No", I will tell them I'm going to see what's available in other departments and hospitals. I don't want to go behind anyone's back or get any other managers in trouble for hiring me and then it being a shock to my department.