At the end of February, GPC announced a significant enhancement to maternity leave benefits for salaried GPs, following a recent unanimous vote by GPC UK. The number of weeks at half pay for maternity leave will increase from 14 weeks to 18 weeks. This change aligns maternity leave provisions with those of hospital doctors and ensures salaried GPs are no longer at a detriment to their hospital-based colleagues.
Improvements to salaried GP maternity pay
We have produced guidance, resources and template letters to aid the implementation of this change. The new maternity leave benefits are as follows:
- 8 weeks of full pay, less any SMP (statutory maternity pay) or MA (maternity allowance) receivable, including any dependants allowances.
- 18 weeks of half pay, rather than 14 weeks, plus any SMP or MA receivable, ensuring the total does not exceed full pay.
- 13 weeks at SMP or MA, as entitled under the statutory scheme.
This change was made possible thanks to the unity and collective resolve of our profession.
By implementing this new maternity leave pay change, we’re not just helping individuals, but also strengthening our profession. These enhanced benefits reflect our commitment to supporting salaried GPs throughout their working lives.
Next Steps: We recommend all practices discuss these changes with their salaried GPs. Following which, we recommend that a contract variation letter is issued to each salaried GP to reflect these changes. Further information and the relevant contract variation letters can be found on our website.
For this decision, to take effect, it is dependent on practices issuing contract variation letters to their salaried GPs. Therefore, as GPC representatives, we all need to engage with our constituents, either directly or via LMCs, to explain the change, and encourage them to issue these letters.
If you have any questions, please get in touch via info.gpc@bma.org.uk.