NHS England has issued new guidance to local hospitals on offering NHS staff who suffer a miscarriage up to ten days additional paid leave.
Those who experience a miscarriage in the first 24 weeks of pregnancy will be offered up to 10 days paid leave and their partners will be offered up to 5.
Those who experience a loss over six months of pregnancy will remain eligible for paid maternity leave.
The National pregnancy and baby loss people policy framework will ask NHS trusts to give staff paid time off to attend appointments including for medical examinations, scans and tests, as well as mental health-related interventions.
Those who return to work after a pregnancy loss will be offered occupational health support including referrals to specialist services at their trust, or specialist miscarriage and baby loss charities and organisations.
A trial of paid leave for NHS staff following a miscarriage took place at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Trust. A staff survey found that staff were twice as likely to stay with their employer as a result of the policy.
Dr Navina Evans, chief workforce, training and education officer said: “Baby loss is an extremely traumatic experience that hundreds of NHS staff experience each year, and it is right they are treated with the utmost care and compassion when going through such an upsetting experience.
“We know the significance of getting support right in the very first instance for our staff, which is why for the first time in the healthcare sector we are providing paid leave so parents can take time out to process this traumatic experience as well as paid time to attend appointments.
“I hope that this formal guidance will see other sectors in the UK adopt such supportive approaches to miscarriage in their own organisations – and if you have experienced baby loss, please come forward to one of our bereavement services which have been rolled out nationally, from this month”.
Raffaela Goodby, chief people officer at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s who first trialled the policy said: “I hope this national policy to support mother’s and parents with love and compassion at a terrible time in their employment is welcomed across the NHS and drives positive change across the UK.
“Structured support at work for people experiencing miscarriage can have a lifelong impact on the people involved, I hope policies like this become the norm for the NHS and I am grateful to Staff Side, NHS England, Tommy’s and the Miscarriage Association for their energy and support”.
