Returning to NHS role after maternity

I don't work for NHS but the law is that you don't loose any as you are entitled to all of it and can't be penalised for not having enough time to take it. Normally it's agreed before you go on maternity leave how you will use it, for example I was off April to April full holiday year, so I used my whole 8 week entitlement in Feb and March when I was on the 13 weeks no pay mat leave, so it meant I got paid full pay in those months instead of no pay. I just emailed saying I was ending my maternity leave early and taking my annual leave. https://www.acas.org.uk/your-maternity-leave-pay-and-other-rights/holiday-and-maternity-leave

I’ve recently had this conversation with my manager. You get the full years annual leave to take. In our team they like us to use it before we return or you can spread it out over x amount of weeks to return on ‘part time’ but obviously at some point that will run out. I’m under the impression you need to have some kind of ‘plan’ in place on how your are going to use it and you can’t really carry it over in the sense using it whenever you want throughout the year (as you would with your 2025 -2026 AL) x

Thanks both! My manager wasn’t very forthcoming before going off. I also had 4 weeks of annual leave from previous financial year to use firstly, so I used that and had a month off before my maternity leave commenced. I will talk to my manager x

For us you can carry 1 week over and anything else will be lost this is in normal circumstances not mat leave so it might be different. I would think they would want to to us them either before returning or definitely before holidays restart again in April xx

I was told by my HR department that any holiday accrued can not be taken away from you. Again you can use it to return to work so you’re back on payroll but on holiday or do it as a staggered return and work part time with longer weekends etc.

I'm a local authority employee, not NHS, but sometimes it's similar. Mine is the same as Amy, they like you to use it before you return or in the initial months to make a phased return. I don't know if they can enforce this though

It’s entirely trust dependent. At my previous trust it was use it or lose it you couldn’t carry it over. My current trust they gave me the option of carrying over almost 5 weeks to next year

I was only allowed to take 5 days over into the next financial year! xxx

I would suggest talking to your HR representative if you’re not happy with the info your manager is giving you. Are you entitled to KIT days too? They can be really helpful to settle back into work and you get paid for them!