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Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

H ealth & Safety is a big issue in the present time. As a manager it is essential that you are ahead of the game and any changes affecting the Health & Safety of your staff should be imple- mented straight away, with regular reviews of policies. It’s also of little use having a poli- cy and having no staff involve- ment. Each and every member should be aware of what is in- cluded in your policy and how it involves them. An ideal way is to ensure during induction you give all employees copies of what I consider to be the most important policies you should have, Grievance, Con- fidentiality, Health & Safety etc, certainly make sure that time is set aside for new em- ployees to read through them plus all the other policies in place, obtain a signature of understanding and maybe during staff meetings it would be an idea to look at different policies and how it affects the employee and employer. Most importantly is to ensure that policies are reviewed at regu- lar intervals and acted upon if necessary. Today I am going to con- centrate on New and Expect- ant Mothers in the Workplace and what is required by law to be implemented. I don’t want to sound dis- criminative but as the major- ity of DCPs are women, this is one area in practice manage- ment that I can safely say one day you will come across the need for ensuring the legisla- tion affecting New & Expect- ant Mothers is in place, not only to protect the staff but to protect you as an employer. Legally a pregnant em- ployee is required to give her employer three pieces of in- formation: • Prior to or on the 15th week before her estimated date she must inform you that she is pregnant. • She must notify the con- firmed date. • The date she intends to start her maternity leave. This should be given in writing and a form MAT B1 obtained by the employee and given to the Employer. The employee can only change the date she wishes to commence her maternity leave by giving 28 days notice with a new start date. How- ever as we all know babies can think differently and one never knows what can be an- ticipated during a pregnancy. So as a manager I would like to think that I wouldn’t nec- essarily hold any pregnant employee to terms and condi- tions where pregnancy is con- cerned. Once you have been informed of a pregnancy you must acknowledge the no- tification of maternity leave within 28 days. Getting it right Jane Armitage deals with health and safety ‘So as a manager I would like to think that I wouldn’t nec- essarily hold any pregnant employee to terms and condi- tions where preg- nancy is concerned’ March 25-31, 201324Practice Management United Kingdom Edition