Leave for New Parents

Supporting New Parents

Everything you would expect as an NHS employee is included, but we’ve added some extras to create a unique package that sets us apart from other employers and ensure we care for you, whilst you care for your new family member.

Smallest Things Charter – Employer With Heart

We’re proud to have signed the Smallest Things Charter, to support the needs of premature babies and their families. https://www.thesmallestthings.org/employer-with-heart

Early Childbirth - NEW

We recognise the unique needs of employees following the premature birth of a baby and provides enhances leave arrangements to support parents.

Our enhanced offer gives parents additional leave if their baby is born early.

Maternity leave for mothers/birthing persons who give birth prematurely (before 37 weeks gestation) will be extended by the number of days a baby was born prior to their due date. This will be at full pay.

An additional two weeks is offered in addition to paternity leave and pay for partners to provide them with the time they need to be with their baby in hospital, allowing partners to take their paternity leave at a later date.

Maternity Leave

All employees are entitled to 52 weeks maternity leave, irrespective of length of service. This is made up of 26 weeks Ordinary Maternity Leave (OML) followed by 26 weeks Additional Maternity Leave (AML).

Maternity Pay

Where an employee has 12 months or more continuous service with one or more NHS employers, they maybe entitled to OMP as follows

8 weeks full pay (less any SMP/Maternity Allowance/dependants’ allowances receivable)

18 weeks half pay (less any SMP/Maternity Allowance/dependants’ allowances receivable)

13 weeks at SMP/Maternity Allowance/dependents’ allowances receivable

Plus, 13 weeks unpaid leave

Where an employee has less than 12 months continuous service but has 26 weeks continuous employment by the 15^th week before expected week of childbirth they maybe entitled to Statutory Maternity Pay.

Where an employee is not eligible for Statutory Maternity Pay, they may be eligible to make an independent request for Maternity Allowance (MA) via the Government website. See Gov.UK for full details of SMP and MA.

Keeping in Touch (KIT) Days

An employee can choose to do up to 10 Keeping in Touch (KIT) days during their maternity/adoption leave without bringing the leave to an end.

Adoption Leave and Pay

All employees are entitled to 52 weeks Adoption Leave (regardless of length of service) when taking time off to adopt a child or have a child through a surrogacy arrangement. Eligibility and payment arrangements for Adoption Pay are the same as set out for Maternity Pay. See the Leave Policy for further details for eligibility arrangements.

Paternity / Partner Leave and Pay including adoption

All employees are eligible for 2 weeks paternity/partner leave regardless of length of service.

Employees with 12 months continuous service or more at the beginning of the expected week of childbirth (EWC) (or ending with the week notified of being matched with child for adoption) is entitled to be paid in full during the leave.

Employees with less than 12 months continuous service may be entitled to statutory paternity pay. See the Leave Policy for further details for eligibility arrangements.

Shared Parental Leave

Shared Parental Leave (SPL) enables eligible parents to choose how to share the care of their child during the first year after birth, adoption, or getting a parental order (if they have the child through surrogacy). Depending on how much maternity entitlement the birth parent has taken or, adoption entitlement the primary adopter has taken, two eligible parents can share between them:

Up to 50 weeks of shared parental leave

Up to 37 weeks of shared parental pay.

For full eligibility criteria and details, you should refer to the policy.

We are proud to be a Tommy’s Pregnancy and Parenting at Work Champion

Parents who experience a miscarriage or stillbirth at any stage of their pregnancy should be supported and given the time they may need to grieve and process their loss. Information can be found in the Leave Policy under Special Leave. See Leave Policy under Special Leave for further information as to how we support employees with pregnancy loss’