Recommendation 18

HM Government Accepted in Part

The Government partially accepts this recommendation. An individual’s employment rights are determined by their employment status, not the type of employment contract they have, or the type of work they do. Employment status is based on the nature of the relationship between an individual and the person for whom services are provided. Comprehensive guidance was published in July 2022. All employed women, including sportswomen who are employees, are entitled to 52 weeks’ Maternity Leave if they are pregnant or give birth. It is a “day one” right and there are no qualifying conditions. Pregnant women or mothers may be entitled to Statutory Maternity Pay or Maternity Allowance. There are qualifying requirements for pay. Further information can be found on gov.uk8. Employees who were working for their employer before falling pregnant may be entitled to Statutory Maternity Pay, which runs for 39 weeks. It is paid at an “enhanced” rate of 90% of their average weekly salary (with no upper limit) for the first 6 weeks and then at the statutory rate (currently £184.03 a week) for the remaining 33 weeks. Working mothers (including self-employed mothers) who do not qualify for Statutory Maternity Pay may be entitled to Maternity Allowance, which is paid at the standard rate £184.03 a week for 39 weeks. Maternity payments are primarily a health and safety provision to allow pregnant working women to take time off work in the later stages of their pregnancy and in the months following childbirth, in the interests of their own and their baby’s health and wellbeing. UK Sport’s Pregnancy Guidance for sports and athletes, published in November 2021, provides advice to athletes about how and when to share their pregnancy with their sport and advice to sports on how to respond should an athlete share news of a pregnancy with them. It also recommends a framework which athletes and sports may follow to ensure a responsible and reasonable approach is adopted pre, during and post-childbirth, including return to training and competition. In addition to the Guidance, UK Sport also supports athletes on funded programmes who become pregnant by ensuring that they continue to receive their full Athlete Performance Award (APA) throughout the duration of the pregnancy and for up to nine months post childbirth. At nine months post childbirth the potential of the athlete should be assessed and confirmed to UK Sport in order to continue to access the APA. It is important to note that this assessment should indicate the athlete’s future medal potential and not necessarily current performance outcomes. Having consulted with the UK Sports Institute, athletes, coaches, performance directors, researchers, charities and professional sports, updated guidance was released in December 2023. The UK Sports Institute also offers one-to-one consultation with a Multi-Disciplinary Team for pregnant athletes through the Female Athlete Health Clinic at Bisham Abbey. This is in addition to support available through sports’ medical teams. The UK Sports Institute also coordinates a pregnancy support group for athletes on WhatsApp. The Review of Women’s Football, published in July last year, recommended that both the Women’s Super League and Women’s Championship should become fully professional environments designed to attract, develop and sustain the best playing talent in the world including mandating a world-leading parental package. The Women’s Football Review Implementation Group has been set up to bring together key decision-makers from the organisations with responsibility for taking forward the Review recommendations. This is an opportunity for everyone to come together to share both updates and challenges being faced as they deliver against the ten strategic recommendations that were outlined in the review. As mentioned, the Board of Women’s Sport has been set up to look at some of the prevalent issues facing women’s sport more broadly, and facing female athletes, it is also looking at player welfare and there is no doubt that maternity leave and pay will form part of those discussions too. Both UK Sport and Sport England are members of the Board of Women’s Sport and contribute to these discussions.