Maternity leave: the employer's guide
Fifty-two weeks from day one - and a completely separate set of tests for whether any of it is paid.
Statutory Maternity Leave is 52 weeks, available to every employee from day one - it does not matter how long they have worked for you, how many hours they do, or what they earn. Statutory Maternity Pay is a separate question with its own tests: 26 weeks' continuous service into the qualifying week, and average earnings of at least £129 a week. Someone can be fully entitled to a year's leave and to no SMP at all, and treating the two as one decision is the most common employer mistake in this area.
Leave and pay are different questions
| Maternity leave | Maternity pay (SMP) | |
|---|---|---|
| Who qualifies | Any employee. gov.uk: "It does not matter how long you've been with your employer, how many hours you work or how much you get paid." | 26 weeks' continuous employment into the qualifying week, and average earnings of at least £129 a week |
| How long | 52 weeks | 39 weeks |
| Notice needed | At least 15 weeks before the baby is due | 28 days before SMP is to start |
| If they do not qualify | - | Give form SMP1 within 7 days of the decision so they can claim Maternity Allowance |
"She hasn't been here long enough for maternity leave" is simply wrong, and it is said often. The 26-week test belongs to the pay, never to the leave.
How the 52 weeks are structured
- Ordinary Maternity Leave - the first 26 weeks.
- Additional Maternity Leave - the last 26 weeks.
- Compulsory maternity leave - two weeks immediately after the birth, or four weeks for factory workers, which cannot be waived even if the employee wants to come back.
The division matters at the end rather than the beginning: it sets what they return to. After Ordinary Maternity Leave the employee has the right to return to their job. Where leave has run past 26 weeks, gov.uk describes the right as returning to "their job or a similar job (if it's not possible to give them their old job)" - and "not possible" means genuinely not possible, not merely inconvenient because the cover has settled in.
When does leave start?
Usually when the employee chooses - the earliest is 11 weeks before the expected week of childbirth. Two things start it whether anyone intended it or not:
- A pregnancy-related absence in the four weeks before the due week triggers maternity leave automatically. This catches employers out: a week of pregnancy-related sickness at 37 weeks is not sick leave, it starts the clock.
- An early birth starts leave the day after the baby arrives, regardless of the planned date. You then have to write and confirm the new end date.
What the employer actually has to do
- Confirm the dates in writing within 28 days of being told. This is a specific duty and it is widely skipped - gov.uk: "You must then confirm their leave start and end dates in writing within 28 days."
- Decide SMP and act on it. If they are not eligible, issue form SMP1 within 7 days of the decision so they can claim Maternity Allowance instead. Sitting on it costs them money.
- Give paid time off for antenatal appointments. Pregnant employees are entitled to it, and it is paid.
- Carry out a risk assessment once you know, and act on what it finds.
- Keep the benefits running. Everything except salary continues - pension contributions, car, phone. Holiday keeps accruing throughout.
- Reclaim the SMP. Most small employers recover more than they pay out - see reclaiming SMP.
A full year of leave accrues a full year of holiday, and it cannot be paid off or lost. Plan for it: someone returning in October may have most of an untouched allowance to take before year end. Our pro-rata holiday calculator works out where they stand.
Keeping in touch days
Up to 10 KIT days can be worked during maternity leave without ending it or losing SMP. gov.uk is explicit that they are "optional - both the employee and employer need to agree to them". Neither side can require them. They are useful for a team day, a handover or training near the end of leave; they are not a mechanism for keeping someone half-working through their leave, and pressure to take them is a straight route to a discrimination claim.
Redundancy during and after maternity leave
Pregnancy and maternity are protected characteristics, and the protection here is stronger than most employers realise - it is not only about the leave period.
Where a redundancy situation arises, the employee has the right to be offered any suitable alternative vacancy - offered it, not invited to compete for it. Someone at risk who is on maternity leave goes ahead of colleagues in the pool who scored higher. gov.uk states the protection runs "up until 18 months from the date the child is born or adopted" and that it "continues when the employee returns to work", so it covers a substantial period after the return, not just the leave itself.
Get this wrong and the dismissal is automatically unfair, with a discrimination claim alongside it. If you are running a redundancy that touches anyone pregnant or recently on family leave, the redundancy process guide sets out the pool and criteria, but take advice before you act.
Planning the return
The default is that the employee takes all 52 weeks, and no further notice is needed to return on that date. To come back earlier they must give 8 weeks' notice - which is also the practical reason to stay in touch: a return date that moves without warning is disruptive for everyone, and the fix is a conversation, not a policy.
Worth raising before they leave, not after they are back: whether they intend to request a change to hours or pattern on return. A flexible working request carries a two-month decision deadline and only eight statutory grounds for refusal, so knowing early is better for both sides. They may also be entitled to shared parental leave, which can convert the untaken balance into something more flexible for the family.
General guidance, not legal advice. Leave lengths, notice periods, KIT days, SMP rates and the redundancy protection window verified against gov.uk on 9 August 2026. Take advice on anything involving redundancy, dismissal or a change of role.
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Leave that tracks itself
CoDash keeps family leave, accrued holiday and return dates on one calendar, so a year-long absence does not turn into a spreadsheet nobody trusts.