What are NHS Keeping In Touch (KIT) days?

If you’re about to go on maternity, paternity, or shared patental leave, you’ve probably heard about Keeping In Touch (KIT) days.

KIT days are days which you work during your time away, without bringing to an end your maternity or paternity leave. By law in the UK, you can work up to 10 KIT days – if you work more than this you will lose some of your maternity or paternity pay eligibility.

UK law also states that KIT days are voluntary for both the employee and employer. You can’t be forced to do KIT days, and you can’t force your employer to allow you KIT days.

How much will I get paid for KIT days?

According to the NHS Agenda for Change terms and conditions, you will receive some form of additional compensation for a KIT day. What exactly this entails depends on where you are in terms of your maternity leave allocation:

• If you are in your period of full pay maternity leave, you will receive an additional day of annual leave allocation for each KIT day worked.
• If you are in any other period of maternity leave (e.g. half pay), you will be paid at your normal hourly or daily rate, less any occupational or statutory payments you are receiving. In practice this may mean that your pay is “topped up” to your full rate for the hours you have worked. You may also be able to agree to receive additional annual leave in lieu of payment.

It is worth noting that according to the full Agenda for Change terms and conditions, every day that you work (even if you only work for a couple of hours) counts as a a full KIT day in terms of reducing your 10 day allowance. You may want to check with your line manager or HR how this impacts your pay or other compensation if you want to make the most of the extra income you are eligible for via KIT days.