Redundancy
Redundancy During Maternity Leave in the NHS: Your Enhanced Rights
Independent guidance — not affiliated with NHS England or DHSC
Short answer
If you're pregnant, on maternity, adoption or (in some cases) shared parental leave, and your role is at risk of redundancy, you have a legal right that goes well beyond general protection against discrimination: a priority right to be offered any suitable alternative vacancy ahead of other employees at risk of redundancy, not merely an equal chance of being considered alongside them. This right was significantly strengthened by the Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act 2023, which took effect on 6 April 2024 — the protected period now starts from when you tell your employer you're pregnant and, for maternity and adoption leave, runs for 18 months from the expected week of childbirth or the date of placement, not just for the duration of the leave itself as under the older rules.
The headline right: priority for suitable alternative vacancies
This is the core protection, and it's genuinely stronger than the general right to be considered for suitable alternative employment covered in our companion guide on that topic. Under the Maternity and Parental Leave etc. Regulations 1999 (as amended), if you're within the protected period and your role is redundant, and there's a suitable alternative vacancy available, you must be offered that vacancy — not simply invited to apply and compete for it alongside other at-risk colleagues. If more than one at-risk employee could suitably fill the same vacancy, and one of them is within their protected period under this right, that employee generally gets it, ahead of colleagues who don't have the same protection, even if another candidate might otherwise seem equally or more suitable on paper.
⚠This is priority, not just parity
It's worth being precise about the difference, since it's easy for a Trust (or an employee) to conflate the two. Ordinary suitable-alternative-employment rights, covered in our separate guide, mean you should be genuinely considered for a suitable vacancy on the same basis as anyone else at risk. This protection goes further: where you qualify, you're meant to be offered the vacancy first, ahead of other at-risk employees, not simply put into the same competitive pool as them.
The protected period, and how it changed in April 2024
Understanding exactly when this protection starts and ends matters enormously, because the rules changed significantly and it's easy to find outdated information online that understates how far the current protection actually reaches.
Protected period for maternity leave
18 months
From the expected week of childbirth (or the actual date of birth, if you've told your employer that date) — not just while you're physically on maternity leave, as under the pre-2024 rules.
Before the change, the priority right for alternative vacancies broadly applied only during maternity, adoption or shared parental leave itself — protection effectively ended the moment you returned to work. The Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act 2023, implemented through the Maternity, Adoption Leave and Shared Parental Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024 and in force from 6 April 2024, extended this substantially in two directions at once:
- ✓ Backwards, into pregnancy itself — protection now starts as soon as you tell your employer you're pregnant, well before any maternity leave begins, covering redundancy decisions made during pregnancy itself.
- ✓ Forwards, well beyond the return to work — for maternity and adoption leave, protection now continues for a full 18 months from the expected week of childbirth (or actual birth date, if notified) or the date of placement, covering a substantial period after you're back at work, not just the leave period itself.
If your own redundancy situation involves a return-to-work date some months in the past, don't assume the protection has lapsed without checking the actual 18-month window against your own dates — under the current rules, it very likely hasn't.
!Don't rely on pre-April 2024 guidance
A meaningful amount of maternity-and-redundancy guidance still circulating online — including some older NHS Trust policy documents that haven't been refreshed — describes only the pre-2024 position, where protection ran solely during the leave itself. If anything you've been told or have read describes your protection as ending the moment you return to work, that's very likely describing outdated law. The current 18-month window, running from the expected week of childbirth or date of placement, is what actually applies to redundancies happening now.
Pregnancy, adoption leave and shared parental leave
The 2024 changes cover more than just maternity leave, and the exact trigger and duration differ slightly by leave type, so it's worth checking which applies to your own situation precisely.
- • Pregnancy (before any leave starts) — protection begins once you've notified your employer of your pregnancy, in line with the usual maternity notification rules, and continues through to the start of any maternity leave you go on to take, from which point the 18-month rule below takes over.
- • Maternity leave — protection runs for 18 months from the expected week of childbirth, or from the actual date of birth if you've told your employer that date, whichever gives the clearer reference point in your own case.
- • Adoption leave — protection runs for 18 months from the date your child was placed with you for adoption.
- • Shared parental leave — protection applies once you've taken at least 6 continuous weeks of shared parental leave, and then runs for 18 months from your child's date of birth or placement, broadly mirroring the maternity and adoption position once that 6-week threshold is met.
The shared parental leave threshold is the one detail that most often catches people out: taking SPL in shorter, non-continuous blocks that never add up to six continuous weeks in one go doesn't unlock the extended 18-month protection in the same way — worth being aware of if you're weighing up how to structure shared parental leave and redundancy risk is a live concern in your workplace at the same time.
What "priority" actually means in practice
In a real NHS redundancy process, this typically plays out through the redeployment and vacancy-matching stage that should already be running alongside consultation — see our companion guide to the at-risk register and redeployment process for how that machinery generally works. What the priority right adds, on top of the ordinary process, is that your Trust needs to:
- ✓ Identify you as being within a protected period specifically, not just generally 'at risk', so the priority right is actually applied to your case rather than overlooked.
- ✓ Search actively for suitable alternative vacancies for you, in the same way as for any at-risk employee, rather than waiting for you to find and apply for something yourself.
- ✓ Where a suitable vacancy exists and more than one at-risk person could fill it, offer it to you first if you qualify for this protection, rather than running an open competition that treats you the same as unprotected colleagues.
- ✓ Be able to show, if challenged, that the search for a suitable vacancy for you was genuine and that the priority right was actually applied, not simply asserted after the fact.
If you're currently at risk and pregnant or on qualifying leave, it's reasonable — and sensible — to raise this specific right directly and in writing with your manager, HR, or your union representative, rather than assuming it will automatically be applied correctly without you flagging it. Trusts vary in how well their internal policies have caught up with the 2024 changes, and a clear, early written reminder of your specific rights can help avoid a dispute arising later.
If your Trust doesn't comply
Where a Trust makes someone redundant during a protected period without properly offering a suitable alternative vacancy that did exist, the resulting dismissal is capable of being treated as automatically unfair — meaning there's no minimum length of service required to bring a claim, unlike an ordinary unfair dismissal claim. Separately and additionally, failing to properly apply this right, or selecting someone for redundancy connected to their pregnancy or leave in the first place, can also amount to pregnancy and maternity discrimination under the Equality Act 2010, which carries its own, uncapped compensation basis, distinct from the capped basic and compensatory awards available for unfair dismissal.
As with any employment claim, you'll generally need to go through ACAS Early Conciliation before lodging an employment tribunal claim, and the usual strict tribunal time limits apply — broadly three months less a day from the relevant date under the rules that apply today, moving to six months less a day for dismissals from 1 October 2026 onwards. Our companion guide to what happens after an NHS dismissal covers the ACAS and tribunal mechanics, including these time limits, in full — it's worth reading alongside this page for the process itself, since the substance here is specific to pregnancy and family leave but the procedural route into a tribunal is the same one that applies generally.
ℹMaternity Action and your union can help early
Maternity Action runs a free, specialist advice service specifically on pregnancy and maternity employment rights, including redundancy situations, and is worth contacting alongside your union representative if you think this protection hasn't been properly applied to your case. Getting this looked at while the facts are current — who was told what, when, and which vacancies genuinely existed — makes a real difference if it's ever disputed later.
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Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions
Does this protection mean I can't be made redundant at all while pregnant or on maternity leave? +
No — it doesn't stop a genuine redundancy situation from applying to you, and it doesn't guarantee you a job if there's genuinely no suitable vacancy available anywhere in the organisation. What it does is give you a materially stronger position within that redundancy process: a guaranteed right to be offered any suitable alternative vacancy that exists, ahead of other at-risk employees, rather than simply being one of a pool of people competing for it on equal terms. If your Trust genuinely has no suitable vacancy anywhere, and the redundancy itself is genuine and fairly conducted, you can still be dismissed — but the priority right has to have been properly honoured first.
Do I need to have told my Trust I'm pregnant for the pregnancy protection to apply? +
Yes, in practical terms — the protection is triggered by your Trust knowing about your pregnancy, generally from when you've formally notified them under the usual maternity notification rules, since a Trust can't be expected to apply enhanced protection it has no knowledge of. Once you've given the required notification, the protected period is treated as starting from that point, which is one of several good reasons not to delay notifying your Trust of a pregnancy if redundancy is already a live risk in your area.
What if I haven't decided whether to take shared parental leave yet, and redundancies are happening now? +
The shared parental leave protection specifically requires you to have already taken at least six continuous weeks of shared parental leave to qualify for the full extended 18-month protected period described above — it isn't triggered simply by being eligible for SPL or by an intention to take it in future. If redundancies are being planned while you're still deciding, and you're on maternity or adoption leave in the meantime, the maternity or adoption leave protection continues to apply on its own terms regardless of what you later decide about shared parental leave.
Does this protection apply to redundancy selection scoring, not just to alternative vacancies? +
The enhanced right specifically addressed by this legislation is the priority for suitable alternative vacancies, but the wider protection against pregnancy and maternity discrimination under the Equality Act 2010 also applies throughout, including to how you're scored or selected within a redundancy pool in the first place. If you believe your selection itself — not just the alternative-vacancy process afterwards — was influenced by your pregnancy or leave, that's a discrimination question worth raising specifically and separately, alongside anything about the priority-vacancy right.
Can my Trust make my whole team redundant, including me, if there's genuinely no alternative role available? +
Yes, if the redundancy situation is genuine, properly conducted, and no suitable alternative vacancy exists anywhere in the organisation that could have been offered to you in priority. The protection is about guaranteeing you first refusal on any suitable vacancy that does exist — it isn't a guarantee that a vacancy will exist, or a general immunity from redundancy simply because you're pregnant or on leave. Where a genuine, wide search turns up nothing suitable, redundancy can still proceed, provided every other part of the process (consultation, selection, and the priority search itself) was carried out properly.
How does this interact with my ordinary maternity pay and leave entitlements if I am made redundant? +
They run separately. Being made redundant while on maternity leave doesn't cut short your entitlement to Statutory Maternity Pay or Occupational Maternity Pay you'd otherwise have qualified for — these are contractual and statutory entitlements independent of your employment status changing, though the precise mechanics of how OMP continues (or is paid in a lump sum) after your employment ends can vary by Trust policy, so it's worth checking this specifically with your Trust's maternity policy or your union rep. Our guide to NHS maternity leave entitlement covers how pay itself is calculated and staged in full.
What's the difference between this protection and ordinary unfair dismissal protection? +
This protection is specific and additional — it creates a positive obligation on your employer to offer you suitable alternative vacancies ahead of others, on top of (not instead of) the general law on fair redundancy dismissal and pregnancy/maternity discrimination. Failing to give you that priority isn't just potentially unfair in the general sense; a dismissal that results from failing to comply with this specific duty is treated as automatically unfair in its own right, with no length-of-service requirement, which is a materially stronger and more direct route to a claim than relying on the general reasonableness test alone.
Should I get advice before agreeing to anything if I'm at risk of redundancy during maternity leave? +
Yes, and sooner rather than later — this is exactly the kind of situation where the specific facts (your notification date, what alternative roles genuinely existed, how the search for them was carried out) determine whether your rights were properly honoured, and those facts are much easier to establish clearly while everything is current rather than reconstructed months later. Your union representative, ACAS, or Maternity Action's free advice line are all worth contacting promptly if you're facing this, ideally before you respond formally to anything your Trust puts to you.
Related guides
Facing Compulsory Redundancy in the NHS
The full pillar guide to the whole compulsory redundancy process.
NHS At-Risk Register and Redeployment Explained
How the redeployment and vacancy-matching machinery this priority right plugs into actually works.
NHS Redundancy Selection Criteria and Pooling Explained
How selection pools are built, and where pregnancy and maternity discrimination protection applies to scoring.
Suitable Alternative Employment in NHS Redundancy Explained
The general suitability and reasonable-refusal rules this priority right builds on top of.
NHS Maternity Hub
Every guide on NHS maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave pay and rights.
NHS Redundancy Hub
Every guide and tool in our NHS redundancy series.
✓Why you can rely on this page
- ✓ Grounded in the Maternity and Parental Leave etc. Regulations 1999 as amended by the Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act 2023 and the Maternity, Adoption Leave and Shared Parental Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024, not outdated pre-2024 rules.
- ✓ Explicitly flags where older guidance online may still describe the narrower, pre-April-2024 protection, since this is the single most common source of confusion in this area.
- ✓ Written to point you toward Maternity Action, your union, or ACAS for anything specific to your own dates and circumstances — this page explains the framework, not your individual case.
- ✓ Reviewed as employment law and NHS Trust maternity policy change, last checked September 2026.
This page is general information about enhanced redundancy protection during pregnancy, maternity, adoption and shared parental leave, as FrontlinePay understands the Maternity and Parental Leave etc. Regulations 1999, the Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act 2023, and the 2024 implementing regulations, correct to the best of our knowledge as of September 2026. This is not legal advice and should not be relied on as a substitute for advice from Maternity Action, your trade union, ACAS, or a specialist employment solicitor about your own specific dates and circumstances. FrontlinePay is an independent site and is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, Maternity Action, ACAS, any NHS trust, or NHS England.