Keeping in Touch Days During Maternity Leave: What You Need to Know

6/13/202610 min read

KIT days are one of those parts of maternity leave that sound straightforward until you actually have to work out what they mean for you, your pay, your leave and your relationship with your employer. So let's take the jargon out of it.

KIT days, or Keeping in Touch days, allow you to work for your employer during maternity leave without automatically ending your maternity leave or your Statutory Maternity Pay. You can have up to 10 of them, and they are completely optional.

Here's what you need to know before you agree to one.

What are KIT days?

KIT stands for Keeping in Touch. You can work for your employer for up to 10 days during your maternity leave without bringing your maternity leave to an end. The idea is to give you and your employer some flexibility around staying connected while you're away. A KIT day could be planned for anything from attending a team meeting or training session to going to a conference, catching up with your manager or doing some actual work.

They can be particularly useful if you want to stay connected with your team, understand what's changed while you've been away, or make your eventual return to work feel a little less like walking back into a completely different job.

But there's an important word in all of this: Optional.

You don't have to use your KIT days. Your employer cannot require you to work them, and you don't have to use all 10. Before any KIT work happens, you and your employer should agree whether you're going to do it, what you'll be doing and how you'll be paid.

Are KIT days compulsory?

No. This is probably the most important thing to understand about KIT days.

Your employer can suggest them. They can tell you about a meeting they'd like you to attend or a training session that might be useful before you return. They can ask whether you'd like to come in and catch up with the team. But they cannot simply decide that you are going to work a KIT day. The decision needs to be agreed between you and your employer and GOV.UK is very clear that an employer has no right to demand that KIT work is undertaken.

That distinction matters because I've seen how easily an optional conversation can start to sound like an expectation.

"We'd really like you at the quarterly review."

"We'll put you down for the team day."

"It would be good if you could do a couple of KIT days before you come back."

None of those sentences, on their own, mean that you've agreed to anything. You can say yes to some KIT days, no to others and you can decide that you don't want to use any at all. And you don't need to feel guilty about that because you're on maternity leave.

How many KIT days can you have?

You can have up to 10 KIT days during your maternity leave. You can use them individually, in blocks, or not use them at all. You don't have to decide at the beginning of your maternity leave exactly when you're going to use them. There is one slightly strange rule that is really important to understand.

Any work you do on a KIT day counts as one whole KIT day, even if you only work for part of the day. So if you spend an hour attending a meeting, that can use up one of your 10 days. The same applies to a training session or other work that only takes part of the day. That doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, it just means it's worth knowing what you're agreeing to before you say yes.

When can you use KIT days?

You can use KIT days at different points during your maternity leave, but you cannot use them during the compulsory maternity leave period immediately after the birth., which for most employees is the first two weeks after the baby is born. If you work in a factory, it is four weeks. During that period, you cannot work, including using a KIT day.

Outside that compulsory period, there isn't a prescribed point when you have to use your KIT days and that gives you quite a lot of flexibility. You might want to use one early in your leave because there's a major change happening at work and you'd like to understand what's going on or you might want to save them until the end of your leave, when you're thinking about your return and want to reconnect with your manager and team. Or you might decide that being away from work is exactly what you need and you don't want any KIT days. All of those are reasonable choices.

How are KIT days paid?

This is where things can get a little more complicated, because there isn't one universal "KIT day rate".

You and your employer should agree how you'll be paid before you work the KIT day.

The simplest arrangement is often your normal pay for the day. However, Acas confirms that employers can sometimes agree a different amount, depending on the work you're doing, as long as they comply with their legal obligations, including minimum wage requirements. Your employer can also take the Statutory Maternity Pay you're receiving into account when working out the contractual payment for the KIT day.

So don't assume that a KIT day automatically means: "I'll get my normal day's salary plus my maternity pay." That's not necessarily how it works.

If you're receiving enhanced contractual maternity pay, your employer's maternity policy may also have its own arrangements around KIT days, so it's worth checking that before you agree to anything.

The important thing is to agree the payment before you do the work. If your manager says, "Can you just pop in for a couple of hours?", it's perfectly reasonable to ask: "Will that be treated as a KIT day, and can you confirm how I'll be paid for it?"

You don't need to make it awkward. You're simply making sure everyone understands the arrangement.

What can you actually do on a KIT day?

There's no single list of activities that you have to choose from so you and your employer will need to agree what work you'll do. That could be a training course, a team meeting, a conference, a project, a catch-up with your manager or something else that makes sense for your role. And this is where I think KIT days can be genuinely useful.

Use them to make your return less of a cliff edge

Coming back after maternity leave can be a big deal. You might have been away for six months, nine months or a year. Your team may have changed. There may be a new system, a new structure, a new manager or a whole list of things that everyone else seems to know about that you haven't heard of yet.

A KIT day towards the end of your leave could give you the chance to have a proper conversation with your manager, find out what's changed and start thinking about your return before you're suddenly expected to be back and functioning at full speed.

If you're thinking about your return this may be helpful: Flexible working after maternity leave

Use them for something that actually matters

You don't have to spread your KIT days evenly across your maternity leave. If there's a team away day, important training session, client event or something else that genuinely matters to you and your role, that might be a much better use of one of your days than spending an hour on a routine meeting.

The point isn't to use all 10 because they're available, it's to use them if, and when, they are useful to you.

Use them to stay connected if that's what you want

Some women love the idea of staying connected to work during maternity leave, others absolutely do not. Neither is wrong.

You might enjoy the occasional coffee with your team or want to know what's happening in the business. You might find that a couple of KIT days make returning feel less daunting. Or you might have a baby at home and think the idea of logging back onto Teams makes you want to throw your laptop out of the window.

That's okay too - maternity leave isn't a test of your commitment to your career.

Your employer can't choose your KIT days for you

This is where the whole thing can sometimes get a little uncomfortable. Your employer might genuinely think they're being helpful. They might have a training day coming up, assume you'd want to attend and might think they're doing you a favour by keeping you involved. But the fact that something might be useful doesn't mean you have to agree to it.

If the quarterly review falls on the one day your childcare doesn't work, you can say no. If you're exhausted and don't want to spend your maternity leave in a meeting, you can say no. If you'd rather use your KIT days later in your leave, you can say so.

A reasonable employer should be able to have that conversation with you. And if you're getting repeated requests, pressure or comments about your commitment because you're not taking KIT days, that's a different conversation.

Keep a record of your KIT days

This is one of those tiny pieces of admin that is worth doing. Keep a note of every KIT day you use, including:

the date
what you did
how much of the day you worked
what you agreed about payment
any emails confirming the arrangement

You don't need a complicated spreadsheet, a simple note on your phone or a document in your maternity leave folder is enough.

The reason is straightforward: you have up to 10 days, and part of a day still counts as a whole KIT day. Keeping your own record means you always know where you stand.

What happens if you use all 10 KIT days?

This is where you need to be careful. The 10-day allowance is not a suggestion. Once you've used your 10 KIT days, further work for the employer paying your SMP can affect your maternity leave and pay.

GOV.UK explains that if you work more than 10 days during your SMP pay period, your maternity leave comes to an end and you can lose SMP for weeks in which you work. So if you've used all 10 days and your employer asks you to "just do one more day", don't assume it's harmless. Stop and check what it means for your maternity leave and pay first. And remember that a one-hour meeting can use a whole KIT day. This is another reason not to casually agree to work without being clear about how it will be recorded.

What if your employer contacts you while you're on maternity leave?

This is slightly different from a KIT day. Your employer can keep in touch with you while you're on maternity leave. In fact, there are some things they should tell you about, including important changes that could affect you, such as promotions, training opportunities, redundancies or reorganisations.

That doesn't mean you have to work.

Acas recommends that employers and employees agree how they will keep in touch and reminds employers that employees do not have to work during maternity leave. So if a meeting invitation appears in your inbox, don't automatically assume you've been asked to work a KIT day, ask what the meeting is for.

If they want you to participate in work, clarify whether it is being treated as a KIT day and agree the arrangements before you attend. There's a big difference between being kept informed and being expected to work.

When KIT days become a problem

Sometimes the KIT day conversation is a flag for something bigger. If your employer is simply offering you the opportunity to stay connected, that's one thing. If you're getting repeated pressure to take KIT days you don't want, or you're being made to feel that saying no somehow demonstrates a lack of commitment, that's worth paying attention to.

And if someone tells you that refusing KIT days will affect your return, your performance review or how your employer views you, don't just brush that off. Maternity leave shouldn't come with an unspoken requirement to keep proving that you're still invested in your job.

If something doesn't feel right, get advice rather than trying to work it out alone.

So, should you use your KIT days?

There's no right answer to this. That's probably the most important thing to take away.

For some women, KIT days are genuinely useful. They can keep you connected, give you a chance to understand what's changed and make the eventual return to work feel much less daunting. For other women, maternity leave is exactly the time they need to step away from work completely. Neither choice says anything about how ambitious you are, how committed you are to your career or how good an employee you are.

If you do want to use KIT days, use them deliberately. Think about what would actually help you, rather than simply accepting whatever your employer suggests.

And if you don't want to use them, you don't need to invent a complicated reason why.

KIT days: the quick reference

How many KIT days can I have? Up to 10 during maternity leave.
Are KIT days compulsory? No. Your employer cannot require you to work them.
Who agrees the KIT day? You and your employer should agree it before the work happens.
Can I choose when to use them? You and your employer agree the timing, so you don't have to accept a date that doesn't work for you.
Can I use one immediately after my baby is born? No. You cannot work during the compulsory maternity leave period.
Does an hour of work count as a whole KIT day? Yes. Even part of a day counts as one KIT day.
How much will I be paid? You and your employer should agree the payment before the KIT day.
Do KIT days end maternity leave? Not within the 10-day allowance.
What happens after 10 days? Further work can affect your maternity leave and SMP, so check before agreeing to anything else.

The bigger picture

KIT days are a small piece of a much bigger maternity leave puzzle. They sit alongside questions about your maternity pay, your handover, your relationship with your manager, your career, your return to work, flexible working and, sometimes, the rather complicated feelings that come with being away from a job you care about.

None of those things exist in isolation. The women who feel more confident going into maternity leave aren't necessarily the ones who have everything perfectly organised. They're often the ones who understood the bigger picture early enough to make decisions that actually worked for them. That's what this is about, not confrontation or knowing every piece of employment law off by heart, just knowing enough to ask the right questions and make informed choices about your own maternity leave.

Because your maternity leave should feel calm, not chaotic.

And if you're at the stage of trying to work out everything you need to think about before, during and after your maternity leave, The Maternity Blueprint brings the practical planning together in one place.

A note about maternity rights

Maternity leave and pay can be complicated, and your employer may offer terms that are more generous than the statutory minimum.

This article provides general information based on current UK guidance and isn't a substitute for individual legal advice. Always check your employer's maternity policy and the latest GOV.UK and Acas guidance for your own circumstances.

The Maternity Plan
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