KIT Days: What They Are, What Employers Don't Tell You, and How to Use Them Strategically
Your manager mentioned KIT days. But did they tell you they're completely optional, that you must be paid for them, and that they can't require you to take them? Here's what employers know about KIT days that they rarely volunteer.
KIT Days: What They Are, What Employers Don't Tell You, and How to Use Them Strategically
Your manager mentioned KIT days. Maybe in passing. Maybe in a way that came with a calendar invite already attached.
And something about it felt slightly off. Not aggressive. Not obviously wrong. Just... not quite like an offer.
If that sounds familiar, your instincts are sound. KIT days are one of the areas of maternity leave law where employers most regularly take advantage of women not knowing their rights. Not always intentionally. But the gap between what employers know and what they tell you is wide enough to cost you something real.
This is the information your employer has. Here's what they're not volunteering:
What KIT Days Actually Are
Keeping in Touch days (KIT days) are a provision in UK maternity leave law that allows you to work for your employer during your maternity leave without losing your statutory maternity pay for that week.
You get 10 of them across your entire maternity leave. They can be used for anything from a full working day to attending a training session, a team meeting, or a conference. They can be spread out or used in a block. They can happen during any week of your maternity leave except the two weeks immediately following the birth (the compulsory maternity leave period).
On the surface, a genuinely flexible provision that respects the fact that staying connected might actually suit some women. Here's what makes them complicated.
What Your Employer Probably Hasn't Told You
They are completely optional.
You do not have to take KIT days. Your employer cannot require you to take them. There is no obligation on your part to agree to them, and refusing to take KIT days cannot be used as a reason to treat you less favourably.
This is the single most important thing to understand about KIT days, and it is also the thing most frequently left unsaid.
If your manager has framed KIT days as an expectation, "we'll need you to come in for the quarterly review," "we'd like you at the product launch," "can you cover the handover with your replacement?", they have, intentionally or not, misrepresented how KIT days work. The starting position is always that you agree. Not that you attend and then get permission to count it as a KIT day.
They must be agreed by both sides
A KIT day requires mutual agreement. That means you and your employer both need to say yes. Your employer cannot unilaterally decide a day is a KIT day. And neither can you -- in the sense that you can't rock up at the office without your employer's sign-off and then claim the day.
In practice, the agreement is usually informal. But the principle matters: if you haven't explicitly agreed to a KIT day, it isn't one.
The pay rules are more nuanced than they look
You are entitled to be paid for any KIT day you work.
The calculation is: your normal pay for the day, minus whatever SMP you've already received for that week.
So if you're receiving Statutory Maternity Pay (which is currently £194.32 per week at the flat rate for 2026/27), and you work a KIT day, your employer pays you your normal day rate and deducts the weekly SMP amount from that. In most cases, you end up getting paid roughly your normal daily rate the SMP is offset against it rather than added on top of it.
If you're receiving enhanced contractual maternity pay, the calculation may be different depending on your contract. Worth checking before you agree to anything.
What matters is that you are paid for KIT days. If anyone suggests you should work a KIT day without payment because "it doesn't really count," that's not how it works.
Using a KIT day does not extend your maternity leave
Some women worry that working during their leave somehow changes their leave entitlement. It doesn't. KIT days do not extend your maternity leave, do not reset your return date, and do not affect your entitlement to the rest of your leave. Your leave continues as planned. The KIT day is separate.
Why Employers Want You to Take Them
It's worth being honest about the fact that KIT days are often more useful to employers than they are to employees.
A woman who stays connected to her team during leave is a woman who is easier to bring back. The handover is smoother. The catch-up period is shorter. She hasn't missed the context she needs to hit the ground running. From an employer's perspective, KIT days are an investment in a faster, less disruptive return.
That's not inherently cynical. Some women genuinely want to stay connected. Some women find that a few KIT days during their leave makes the return less of a cliff edge. Those are legitimate reasons to use them.
But the framing matters. When KIT days are presented as an expectation rather than an option, or as "you'll want to stay in the loop" rather than "here's something that's available to you if you want it," that framing is doing work it shouldn't be doing. It shifts the dynamic from your right to an optional provision toward an obligation you haven't actually signed up for.
How to Use KIT Days on Your Own Terms
If you want to use KIT days and there are real reasons to, here's how to approach them strategically:
Use them to stay visible in a good way
The career cost of maternity leave is real. Not because the leave itself is a problem, but because 12 months out of sight can mean 12 months out of mind. A well-timed KIT day keeps your name on the whiteboard. A team away day, a senior leadership presentation, an important client meeting, if there's an event that matters for your career trajectory, showing up for it on a KIT day is a reasonable use of your entitlement.
Use them to shape your return
The return to work is often harder than the leave itself. Coming back to a full desk, a changed team, a new system, and an expectation that you're immediately back to full capacity is a recipe for a rocky first few months. A KIT day in the last few weeks of your leave, a team lunch, a handover from your cover, a catch-up with your manager on what's changed, can take the edge off that significantly.
Use them at a time that actually works for you
You are not required to use KIT days when your employer wants you to use them. If the quarterly review is scheduled on the one day a week your childcare doesn't work, that's not your problem to solve. The day needs to suit you. A reasonable employer will be flexible about this. An employer who isn't flexible is telling you something useful.
Keep a record
Note down any KIT day you take - the date, what you did, and how long you worked. Keep a record of the agreement, even if it was just a text message or email saying "yes, I'll come in on Tuesday." This is protection if there's any later dispute about whether the day happened, whether it was agreed, or how many KIT days you've used.
When KIT Days Become a Problem
Sometimes the KIT day conversation is a flag for something bigger.
If your employer is applying pressure to take KIT days you don't want to take, that's worth addressing directly rather than letting it accumulate. A one-off "we'd really like you there" is a comment. A pattern of requests, implied expectations, or expressions of disappointment when you decline is a pattern that needs to be named.
If you're being told that not taking KIT days will affect how your return is handled, your performance review, or the terms you come back on - that's potentially a legal issue, not a cultural one.
If your employer has already scheduled KIT days in your calendar without asking, if they're expecting you to attend meetings during your compulsory maternity leave period, or if the KIT day conversation has already gone sideways in any direction - that's not a situation to manage alone.
A consulting call might be exactly what you need here. Not to start a fight, but to understand your position clearly before you respond. I've spent years on the employer side of these conversations. I know what a reasonable request looks like and I know what a rights violation disguised as a reasonable request looks like. Knowing the difference is worth a lot.
Start With the Free Guide
If this is the first time you're thinking seriously about KIT days and what your maternity leave rights actually are, the free guide is a good place to start.
It covers the key provisions of maternity leave in plain language, with prompts to help you think through your own situation. Most women work through it in about 20 minutes and come out with a clearer sense of what they need to do next.
The Bigger Picture
KIT days are a small piece of a complicated puzzle. They sit alongside questions about your role, your pay, your return arrangements, your flexible working rights, and the way your employer talks about your absence. None of those things exist in isolation.
The women who navigate maternity leave well are almost always the women who understood the full picture early, not because they were aggressive about it, but because they knew what they were entitled to and they asked for it clearly.
That's what this is about. Not confrontation. Knowledge. Because the thing about employment law is that it works significantly better when you know it.
Quick Reference: KIT Days at a Glance
How many: 10 days in total across your full maternity leave
When: Any time during your maternity leave except the two weeks immediately after birth
Agreement: Both sides must agree. Neither side can require the other.
Pay: Your normal day rate, with your weekly SMP amount offset against it
What counts: Any work you do for your employer -- including training, meetings, and events
What doesn't change: Your maternity leave dates, your return date, your leave entitlement
What you can refuse: Any KIT day request, for any reason, with no obligation to explain yourself
Donna is a consultant with 10+ years of corporate HR, L&D, and management consulting experience. She is a qualified Train the Trainer in Neurodiversity. She has spent years on the employer side of maternity leave conversations and The Maternity Plan exists because she watched, repeatedly, what happened to women who didn't have that knowledge.
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