Keeping in touch days on maternity leave

During statutory maternity leave you can work up to 10 keeping in touch (KIT) days for your employer without ending your leave. Your employer has to agree to them, you cannot work any in the first two weeks after the birth, and a part day counts as a whole day. Work more than 10 and your statutory maternity leave and pay end automatically.

What counts as a keeping in touch day

The legal wording is broad. Work means any work done under your contract of employment, and it can include training or any activity meant to keep you in touch with the workplace. Acas gives team meetings and training sessions as examples. Public sector employers often use the days for mandatory training that falls due while you are away, or for a handover before you return.

Any work on a day counts as a day, so an hour on a training update uses one of your 10. Keep that in mind before agreeing to a quick catch-up that turns into an afternoon.

Who decides

Neither side can insist. The regulations say they give an employer no right to require you to work during maternity leave, and give you no right to work. Acas says KIT days need the employer’s agreement, and that you and your employer should agree:

• whether you want to work any KIT days
• how many
• what type of work you will do
• how much you will be paid

Ordinary contact does not use up a day. Reasonable contact from time to time that either of you is entitled to make, for example to talk about your return to work, does not count and does not end your leave.

The first two weeks after birth

You cannot work KIT days from the date of childbirth until the end of the two weeks that begin on that day. The same stretch is when you must take compulsory maternity leave. After that, the 10 days can be used at any point in the rest of your leave.

Pay for keeping in touch days

The law does not set a rate. Acas advises agreeing pay before the day, and says the easiest option is normal pay for the day. An employer can sometimes pay less, depending on what you are doing, but paying you less than you normally get for the same work could be discrimination. Pay can never fall below the minimum wage.

Check the arrangement in writing before you attend. For a training day, ask whether you are paid for a full day or for the hours you attend, since a part day still counts as a full KIT day. If you are in the NHS, teaching or a council, your employer’s maternity policy may spell out the rate, so look there first. The maternity leave guide covers the wider rules, and the take-home pay calculator can show what a day’s work adds to a month in which you are also receiving statutory pay.

Whether a KIT day affects the statutory maternity pay you receive for that week is not covered on the official pages used for this guide. Ask your payroll team to confirm before the day, and ask for the answer in writing.

What happens if you go over 10

If you work more than 10 KIT days, your statutory maternity leave and pay end automatically, according to Acas. Count carefully if you are asked to cover for someone, take work calls at home or attend several short events, because each one is a day.

Shared parental leave and the extra days

If you take shared parental leave, you may be able to take 20 further days for keeping in touch. Acas calls these shared parental leave in touch (SPLIT) days, and they come on top of the 10 maternity KIT days. The shared parental leave guide explains how the leave itself works.

Your return date

Days worked this way do not extend the total length of your leave. You still have 52 weeks of statutory maternity leave, made up of 26 weeks of ordinary and 26 weeks of additional leave, and you only need to take the first 2 weeks. To change your return date you must give your employer at least 8 weeks’ notice. Nobody can require you to work a KIT day, so if a manager presents the days as a way of cutting your time off, raise it with HR or your union.

If you want to talk through an agreement that has gone wrong, Acas runs a free helpline, and the trade unions guide lists who represents which public sector jobs.