Significant enhancement to maternity leave benefits for salaried GPs, following a recent unanimous vote by GPC UK, have been announced. The number of weeks at half pay for maternity leave will increase from 14 weeks to 18 weeks. This change aligns maternity leave provisions with those of hospital doctors.
Improvements to salaried GP maternity pay
The BMA have produced guidance, resources and template letters to aid the implementation of this change. The new maternity leave benefits are as follows:
- 8 weeks of full pay, less any SMP (statutory maternity pay) or MA (maternity allowance) receivable, including any dependants allowances.
- 18 weeks of half pay, rather than 14 weeks, plus any SMP or MA receivable, ensuring the total does not exceed full pay.
- 13 weeks at SMP or MA, as entitled under the statutory scheme.
We recommend all practices discuss these changes with their salaried GPs. Following which, we recommend that a contract variation letter is issued to each salaried GP to reflect these changes. Further information and the relevant contract variation letters can be found on the BMA website.
The LMC is unable to offer legal advice or opinions. Where this advice is required the BMA offer an extremely comprehensive contract checking service to its members.
There is also a salaried GP handbook which is the best source document for you to cross check against, available here.
The BMA Model Contract
You can find the Model BMA contract here
Since 1 April 2004, GMS practices have been obliged to offer a written contract to new salaried GPs in line with the model salaried GP contract.
The BMA model contract contains the minimum terms that must be offered to full-time salaried GPs (with these available on a pro rata basis for those who work part-time) employed by a GMS practice or PCO on or after 1 April 2004. The NHS England Standard Personal Medical Services Agreement in 2015/16 set out that PMS practices should also offer these terms as a minimum to salaried GPs.
The ‘model’ contract for GMS practices consists of a model offer letter and model terms and conditions which provide the minimum that must be offered to a salaried GP employed by a GMS practice as originally agreed between the BMA and NHS Confederation in 2003.
The model contract can be altered in certain circumstances. It is certainly possible for employers to offer improved terms and conditions since these will be no less favourable to the model contract. Employers may wish to do this in order to aid recruitment and retention. It is possible for both parties mutually to agree a variation to the model contract. This is because the requirement on the employer is to ‘offer’ terms and conditions no less favourable. So if the model terms are offered it does not prevent the parties then agreeing to a variation. However, any such subsequent agreement must have been entered into without threat, so for example a requirement to accept altered terms or else be dismissed would be unacceptable.
Many practices will negotiate around study leave – if they reduce this (the LMC recommends no less than 1 week study leave pro-rata) – then some other aspect of the contract should be made more favourable eg pay.
The BMA model contract suggests a session is 4 hours and 10 minutes (usually 3 hours clinical and an hour admin)
Salaried GPs should receive a formal Job offer letter from the employer which should include details such as a job plan.
The Model contract notes that a job plan must be produced and appended to the salaried GP’s terms and conditions. The job plan is a key component of the Model contract.
The job plan produced should outline the employee’s normal duties, workload and important non-clinical roles undertaken within paid work time (such as participation in practice meetings, clinical governance, primary health care team meetings, etc).
An element of flexibility between both parties may be mutually agreed and both parties need to be clear about what is expected before work commences – mismatched expectations are the biggest cause of unhappiness we see.
Suggested areas where clear agreements should be in place:
When will you meet to discuss your job plan/ have a follow-up meeting to review it?
Are you expected to look after a list of patients – if so what size? How is this decided?
For a session – How many patients? How many phone calls? How many home visits? Any ‘extras’ on the day? Duty sessions? Prescription signing? Blood tests? Paperwork? Insurance reports? Extended hours sessions?
Are you expected to undertake private work on behalf of the practice eg Medical reports? If so who receives payment for this? Who pays any uplift in your indemnity required for private work ?
If you are doing a late surgery will you start your morning session later or have time off in the middle of the day?
A job plan review clause should also be included in your contract around varying the contract and any mechanisms of appeal.
The BMA provides the following Job planning guidance