Keeping in touch (KIT) days can supplement reasonable contact. Schools and colleges can be encouraged to use KIT days creatively to support women on maternity leave, functioning as a return- to-work induction, enabling women to undertake training, explore the rest facilities and practice new working arrangements, and reintroducing new mothers to working as a parent of a young baby.
Your rights
Reasonable contact
While you are on maternity leave, your employer is entitled to make contact with you. The contact must be reasonable, not oppressive. Reasonable contact does not include requiring you to plan, prepare or assess students’ work during your maternity leave. Communication should be sufficient to keep you informed of any developments at work and consulted on any changes that might affect you. Your employer can also make reasonable contact with you to discuss your return-to-work plans.
Frequency and means of contact
It is good practice for your employer to seek your views before your absence on how much contact you would like during your leave and how you would prefer to be contacted. You may choose to be contacted on your personal email address to avoid having to log on to your work email address during your leave.
If you have access to portable equipment, such as a laptop or mobile phone provided for personal use, you are entitled to continue to use it during your maternity leave. If it is provided for work use only, your employer may ask for it to be returned during your absence.
Notice of opportunities
You are entitled to be informed of any promotion opportunities or vacancies that arise during your maternity leave. Unless you request otherwise, your employer should include you on any staff distribution lists for workplace news bulletins, vacancies, information about social events and training opportunities. Failure to inform you of important information could amount to an unlawful detriment or to unlawful discrimination.
KIT days
Whether you are full-time or part-time, you can take up to ten KIT days during your maternity leave without bringing your statutory leave to an end.
Working for part of a day will count as one full KIT day. Note that working a KIT day does not extend the length of your maternity leave. If you work for more than ten days, your statutory maternity leave will come to an end and you will lose the whole week’s entitlement to SMP for the week in which such work is done. If you receive maternity allowance, you may work for up to ten KIT days in any employed or self-employed work you do, including working for different employers. If you take shared parental leave, it is possible for each parent to take up to 20 shared parental leave in touch days, known as SPLIT days.
Agreement
KIT days must be mutually agreed between you and your employer, head or line manager. They are not mandatory – you cannot be compelled to attend a KIT day and your employer is not obliged to agree to your request for a KIT day. There are no statutory notice requirements – we recommend that KIT day requests and arrangements are confirmed in writing in advance to avoid any confusion, delay or disruption.
KIT day activities
KIT days can be used to allow returning mothers to attend staff meetings, briefings or relevant training, continuing professional development (CPD) or Inset days. They can be used for planning or preparation – in the workplace or at home – or to allow you to meet your students or any new colleagues. You can ask to use KIT days to stagger your return to work, enabling you and your baby to ease into your new routine or to finalise any arrangements for a job share or other flexible working arrangement. You may be able to agree to undertake some work from home.
If you are an NEU rep and in need of some refresher training, you could ask for a paid KIT day to attend NEU reps training.
Women on maternity leave cannot be forced to use a KIT day to attend an appraisal meeting. And women should not be subjected to observations on a KIT day – this would be an abuse of the KIT day scheme which is designed to ease women back into work.
KIT day pay
You should agree the rate of pay in advance. Pay for a KIT day must be at least the national minimum wage and, to avoid the employer being liable for an equal pay claim, the payment should be the equivalent of your normal contractual rate of pay. Most employers will pay the normal contractual rate of pay.
The NEU expects employers to pay KIT days at the normal contractual rate of pay and sets this out in the NEU Maternity leave and pay model policy. If you work a KIT day during your maternity pay period, your employer is entitled – but not obliged – to reduce any SMP that you were due to receive that week by the value of the contractual pay you earned that week.
It would be unlawful for your employer to treat you unfavourably, to subject you to a detriment or dismiss you for working a KIT day or for not agreeing to work a KIT day.
Your actions
❱ Follow the steps in the NEU Maternity leave and pay checklist for pregnant women and make use of our Keeping in touch sample letter.