We’ve worked in partnership with colleagues at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital and are now in a position to announce a new policy - Pregnancy, Maternity, Paternity and Adoption Leave Policy (including loss during or after pregnancy).

Most people are familiar with a maternity or paternity policy, but a key aspect we’re announcing here is support to parents who experience baby loss, either during or after pregnancy.

Written into the policy wording are some key changes that everyone is entitled to:

• Up to 10 days paid leave for the person who was pregnant and up to five days paid leave for the partner. This includes, but is not limited to, miscarriage, stillbirth, abortion, ectopic pregnancy, molar pregnancy and neonatal loss. This is not dependent upon gestation of pregnancy or length of service.
• In addition, we will also offer colleagues paid time off for appointments linked to pregnancy loss, for example, medical examinations, scans and tests and mental health-related interventions, if this stretches beyond the time outlined above.
• Any requests to work flexibly following a bereavement will also be treated with understanding and sensitivity.

We are aware that living through an experience of pregnancy loss can be devastating and time and space are important to be able to process and understand feelings.

People’s experiences are in no way limited to the timeframes in our policy, but announcing this means that colleagues are free of any work related stresses during such a period.

Smallest Things Charter

As part of this important work, we are also delighted to share that we have been awarded The Smallest Things Employer with Heart chartermark. This means we will be offering additional support to anyone whose baby is born prematurely.

Catriona Ogilvy, Chair and Founder of The Smallest Things said:

"We are thrilled to award The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust with our Employer with Heart charter mark. These changes will mean that their staff will not need to worry about work or money following the birth of a baby born prematurely and will give back precious time to parents to be with their baby or babies once they come home. We hope to see many more NHS Trusts and UK employers making these important changes, going above and beyond new statutory requirements outlined in the Neonatal (Leave and Pay) Bill to support parents through the trauma of neonatal care and beyond."