Your “full pay” is based on your average weekly earnings, averaged over a period of at least eight weeks, up to and including the last payday before the end of the “qualifying week”.
Translation: Your weekly earnings are the average weekly pay across the last 2 payslips before the end of your qualifying week
You qualifying week is the 15th week before your EWC
To work out when the 15th week before the EWC is:
Find the Sunday before the baby is due (or the due date if it is a Sunday)
Count back 15 Sundays from there
That Sunday is the start of the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth ie your qualifying week
The week runs Sunday - Saturday
Or click here to use this calculator to generate your important dates
The BMA also has a maternity leave date calculator here however you have to be a member to use it
You qualifying week is the 15th week before the baby is due
To work out when the 15th week before the EWC is:
Find the Sunday before the baby is due (or the due date if it is a Sunday)
Count back 15 Sundays from there
That Sunday is the start of the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth ie your qualifying week
The week runs Sunday - Saturday
If you adopting from the UK, your qualifying week is:
The week you're matched with the child
If you are adopting from overseas, your qualifying week is:
The week the child enter the UK or
The week you want your pay or leave to start
** To Be Aware **
Your average weekly earnings are calculated on your gross income
If you are in a salary sacrifice scheme, the calculation will be based on your pay after this is taken out
This means that your parental pay will be reduced compared to what you might expect
Therefore, it is worth considering stopping any salary sacrifice schemes early enough they won’t make it into your relevant pay checks, so your parental pay isn’t impacted
Information on this point can be found on the government website here
Maternity pay for doctors should always reflect any expected pay increases due to awards or training progressions, both before and during maternity leave
If a pay award or move to a higher pay point occurs before maternity leave, maternity pay should be calculated as if the new pay point had been in effect throughout the entire calculation period.
Same Employer, Same or Separate Contracts
The higher nodal point should be applied to pay during parental leave
Different Employers, Separate Contracts
Current employer to decide whether to apply the higher nodal point.
While not required, NHS Employers and the BMA recommend that employers honor the higher pay for fairness and to avoid potential unlawful wage deductions.
If the pay award happens during maternity leave, the pay should be adjusted from the date of the award.
If the award is retrospective, the pay should also be recalculated accordingly.
Here is a calculator to help work out your expected pay uplift from the recent pay increases that came into action retroactively in November 2024
If you receive an ARCP outcome that qualifies you for a higher training grade before or during your leave, your pay should reflect this higher nodal point.
If you couldn’t complete your ARCP due to leave but return to a new post, the higher pay should be applied retroactively from the date you would have moved up.
A doctor on maternity leave who was set to move from CT2 to ST3 should have their maternity pay adjusted to reflect the ST3 pay from the date they would have transitioned, despite being on leave.
This guidance has been summarised from the NHS employers guidance here
If you are on unpaid sick leave or half pay during your qualifying week, your average weekly earnings will be calculated based on notional full sick pay
No, you are entitled to up to 52 weeks’ maternity leave for your new pregnancy.
There is no qualifying period, and you are still treated as an employee throughout your maternity leave.
It does not matter how many periods of maternity leave you have taken or whether they overlap or not.
If you take a second maternity leave period, either concurrently or shortly after the first, your average weekly earnings will be based on notional full pay, even if your qualifying week includes a period of no or reduced pay.
Your maternity pay for your next pregnancy will likely be the same as for your first pregnancy even if you don’t return to work between pregnancies:
OMP
Your average weekly earnings for the second period of maternity leave shall be calculated on the basis on notional full pay.
SMP
You will qualify for SMP for your next baby if your earnings are at least £123 per week on average during the calculation period.
If you are not eligible for SMP you will likely be able to claim MA (same pay, different process of application)
MA
You can claim MA if you have
Been employed for at least 26 weeks (not necessarily in a row) in the 66 weeks before your expected week of childbirth (this can include periods on maternity leave as you are still employed during maternity leave)
Earned over £30 per week over 13 weeks (not necessarily in a row)
No.
See above. You may not be eligible to claim SMP however you are likely to be able to claim MA and therefore receive the same pay as you did with your first maternity leave
Useful resources explaining what happens if you are expecting your next child whilst on maternity leave:
If:
You return from an approved OOP and meet the eligibility criteria for occupational pay (NB OOP posts do not cause a break in continuous employment) and
Your reference period for calculating occupational pay falls when you are OOP and is therefore nil
To calculate your parental leave pay:
The reference period used is your last period of paid employment in your previous training placement before starting your OOP
If you have insufficient service with you current NHS employer to qualify for statutory pay, you will receive the value of statutory pay from your new employer
Whether you rotate or not will not affect your maternity pay
The receiving trust will arrange your statutory (SMP) and occupational (OMP) payments even if you have rotated after the 11th week before your expected week of conception (EWC) if you are rotating due to training posts.
If you are rotating outside of training posts, but still working within the NHS, your maternity pay will also not be affected, just which employer pays what may change.
This page here explains everything around moving hospitals and your parental pay.
There are also some handy flowcharts at the bottom of the page to help work out your situation and where your pay will come from.
References:
The BMA
If you are a member of the NHS Pension this automatically continues, and you will continue to pay contributions during maternity leave as long as you plan to return to NHS work following your leave
You pay contributions on the pay you receive; therefore, your pension contribution will reduce as your pay reduces
If you take any unpaid parental leave, pension contributions are based on the rate of pay immediately before the period of unpaid leave (usually statutory pay)
You can’t pay pension contributions whilst you are on unpaid leave, therefore they are collected when you return to work
These contributions are normally collected in instalments equal in number to the number of unpaid months that you have taken
You can opt out of the NHS Pension scheme at any time
However, this will affect your pension benefits
You can find out more about your options here:
NHS Pensions’ Member Help Line on 0300 300 1346
NHS Scheme website at www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/pensions
If you opt prior to, or during, your Maternity Leave you cannot then choose to rejoin and pay contributions during your Maternity Leave or retrospectively pay.
You can, however, restart your membership when you return to paid employment
More information and an example of how pension contributions may be taken during parental leave can be found on the BMA website here
You can choose to spread your occupational pay entitlement equally over your maternity leave instead of having a period of full followed by half pay.
This must be agreed with your employer
We recommend that you consider this carefully.
It can create confusion with the calculation of payment for KIT, SPLIT, and SRTT days, leading to difficulties in receiving the correct pay from HR.
To be eligible for occupational maternity / shared parental or adoption pay, employees must have 12 months of continuous service with one or more NHS employer
The following breaks in service will be disregarded (but will not be counted as service)
Absence on maternity leave, adoption leave, or shared parental leave (paid or unpaid)
A break in service of three months or less
Time spent outside of NHS employment in an agreed Out of Programme (OOP) placement
Employment under the terms of an honorary contract
A period of up to 12 months spent abroad as part of a definite programme of postgraduate training on the advice of the postgraduate dean or college or faculty advisor in the speciality concerned
A period of voluntary service overseas with a recognised international relief organisation for a period of 12 months, which may exceptionally be extended for 12 months at the discretion of the employer which recruits the employee on their return
Employment as a locum in a general practice setting for a period not exceeding 12 months
Absence on an employment break scheme in accordance with the provisions of Section 34 of the NHS Employers T&C Handbook
References: