As an employer, you should consider having a pregnancy and maternity policy.
If you have one, you should store it in a place that all workers can easily access. For example, on an intranet or in a staff handbook.
You should work with any recognised trade unions your organisation has when developing and reviewing a policy. You should also check if your organisation has an agreement with the trade unions that requires you to do this.
Reasons for having a policy
A pregnancy and maternity policy can:
- help everyone understand their rights and responsibilities
- help to prevent pregnancy and maternity discrimination
If you're a small employer, you might not want to create a policy. However, you should still think about your responsibilities and how you would support someone who's pregnant.
What to include
A policy should set out:
- how and when someone should tell you they're pregnant
- your approach to assessing and managing health and safety risks
- processes around pregnancy-related sickness, for example recording pregnancy-related absence separately from other sickness absence
- how you handle time off for antenatal appointments – these are appointments made on the advice of a doctor, nurse or midwife
- how someone should tell you when they'll start and end maternity leave
- how someone can change their maternity leave start date
- your approach to paid holiday that's 'accrued' (built up) during maternity leave
- whether you offer statutory (legal minimum) or enhanced maternity pay
- how you'll keep someone informed of changes when they are on maternity leave
- how keeping in touch (KIT) days work
- how someone will be supported when they return to work
- facilities for breastfeeding or expressing breast milk
To make sure the policy includes any legal obligations and good practice, you can get detailed advice on:
Reviewing your policies and processes
If you have a policy, you should review it regularly and keep it up-to-date.
Your pregnancy and maternity policy might link to other policies and processes in your organisation.
For example, policies or processes relating to:
- absence
- reasonable adjustments
- health and safety
- risk assessments
- paternity leave and pay
- shared parental leave and pay
- neonatal care leave and pay
You should review any linked policies to make sure they're up-to-date and consistent with each other.
Supporting and training managers
As an employer, you should support everyone to follow your pregnancy and maternity policy.
You can support managers by:
- sharing your pregnancy and maternity policy with the whole organisation
- training managers on how to manage pregnancy and maternity leave
- giving clear guidelines for managing pregnancy and maternity – for example how managers will keep in touch with employees on maternity leave
You can use your policy as the basis for any training for managers.
[H2] Get more advice and support
If you need help making a pregnancy and maternity policy for your organisation, you can: