Maternity Action have produced a new resource for employers which aims to help manage pregnant women and new parents at work, including breastfeeding mothers. Our in-house legal team have developed the Employers Toolkit, drawing on the extensive knowledge of potential workplace issues that we have gained through our advice work. With this resource, we are aiming to encourage employers to support women to have healthy pregnancies and to improve women’s experiences at work during pregnancy, maternity leave and on their eventual return.
The resource is also based on feedback that we have had from employers – for example, we know that many smaller employers don’t have HR capacity and cannot get the right information at the right time, which leads to uncertainty of their legal obligations. The toolkit is designed to make life easier for employers – there are checklists for different stages of pregnancy, maternity leave and return to work so that employers can be confident that they have done everything they are required to do.
In addition to this, the toolkit also contains a template for risk assessment and a number of model policies, including on maternity leave and pay and on breastfeeding. The model breastfeeding policy comprises best practice examples, information about Health and Safety protection and suggestions for possible adjustments. The toolkit builds on our previous work with the UK breastfeeding organisations to develop a Maternity Action resource for employers, and with Acas in 2013, developing their guidance on accommodating breastfeeding on return to work.
Many employers want to do the right thing for their employees and indeed many already do, recognising that supporting the transition back to work for their women employees is a small, short-term investment that has longer term benefits such as loyalty and staff satisfaction. With this toolkit, we aim to provide employers with answers to common questions about managing pregnancy, maternity, adoption, paternity and other family leave provisions in the workplace. We hope that this will help inform good employment practices.
Maternity Action is working with Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter to engage employers in the region. Acas North West hosted the launch of the resource and we are working together to promote the resource more widely. We are also looking at other ways to get the resource out to the employers who need it. Please get in touch if you would like to get involved in this.
The toolkit is funded by the VCSE Health and Wellbeing Fund, part of a partnership programme between Department of Health & Social Care, NHS England and UK Health Security Agency.
Get in touch: info@maternityaction.org.uk
Annah Psarros is Senior Policy Officer at Maternity Action. Annah is particularly interested in health inequalities and the social factors contributing to maternal health and wellbeing. She is currently working on a research project about the cost of living crisis and its effects on mothers and families, due in the autumn.
Breastfeeding trends (UK) 