Any NHS HR representatives here that can help me with maternity leave and continuous service?

[Salilou]

So I currently work as a health visitor for the council. I have been offered a role with the NHS doing the same job and they have agreed to honour my continuous service back to 2010 as I have always worked in similar roles.
Since the interview, I have found out I am pregnant & due to a 3 month notice period, I won’t start until I’m more than 20 weeks pregnant! I believe I will be entitled to their occupational maternity pay because of my ‘continuous service’ but may have to apply for maternity allowance instead of statutory maternity pay as I won’t have worked for the same employer.
I’m worried that given they calculate occupational maternity pay from 17-25 weeks and I’ll only be there from 22 weeks, that my ‘average weekly earnings’ will be calculated using just 3 weeks pay which may result in a loss of maternity pay?

Can anyone help that works in HR or has been in the same situation?!

I’m desperate to still take the job as I’m really unhappy with my current employer but I need mternity pay to survive

Anyone?!?!

Why don't you ask them? They can't withdraw the offer because your pregnant.

Not HR but NHS Management. Are you moving on a TUPE transfer or have you resigned your role at the LA to take up new post? If the latter I wouldn't have thought you'd get SMP as you are making a choice to leave your substantive post with the LA. But yes, do ask

they have agreed to honour my continuous service back to 2010

assuming that you won't have a gap between finishing your old job and starting new, then you should be treated as if employed by them from 2010. If some of your qualifying weeks fall in between jobs then yes, your pay will be reduced as you will have no salary for those qualifying jobs.

(GP in NHS, not HR)

Tobermory, it sounds to me like the OP has resigned voluntarily from the LA rather than it being a TUPE but the NHS trust has agreed to recognise her previous continuous service on a discretionary basis. Agenda for Change allows trusts to do this particularly for roles where there is a clear relationship, e.g. nurses and doctors moving between LAs and NHS. Not all trusts do it of course but many do.

OP, in terms of how they work out the qualifying weeks, I would have thought they will either ask you to show your payslips for your previous job for the relevant time period so they can use your actual earnings in that time, or possibly they will just base it on the average of the 3 weeks you will have been employed (rather than 3 weeks averaged over 8).

I would check with your HR and/or payroll exactly how it will work, but if they've agreed to treat the service as continuous you shouldn't lose out. It's not an unknown occurrence for pregnant employees to move around the NHS so they should have a process for dealing with this...