Returning to work after maternity leave or a career break: a UK CV and interview guide

If you are returning to work after maternity leave or a longer break to raise children or care for someone, show the break honestly and briefly: real dates, one factual line labelled as a career break, and anything true you did or learned during it. Open your profile with your professional background rather than the break. Then prepare a calm answer of about 30 seconds for the interview: what you did before, the break in a sentence, and where you want to go now.

This guide takes you through it step by step, with fictional examples. It also summarises your rights when returning to work, what employers should not ask, and where to look for returner programmes. It is general information, not legal advice, and it reflects UK sources as they stood in October 2026.

You are not starting from zero

A break of months or years can feel as though it has erased your experience. It has not. The jobs you did, the skills you built and the results you achieved are still on your record, and the National Careers Service says that having a gap is not a problem in itself. What matters is that you are open and honest about it and ready to explain what you were doing (National Careers Service). Prospects, the graduate careers site, lists having children among the ordinary reasons for a gap and advises approaching the explanation positively (Prospects).

Step 1: Show the break honestly and briefly

Put the break in your work history, in date order, as a short labelled line with a start and end month and year. The National Careers Service suggests stating why you took time off in your CV, application form or cover letter, and notes that the employer can ask for more at interview. Career Returners, a specialist organisation formerly known as Women Returners, recommends a standard reverse-chronological CV with a "Career Break" entry showing dates, and says the reason is optional (Career Returners). Reed's template gives a one-line labelled break as one option, and listing activities from the break as roles as another (Reed).

Some fictional examples of a line you could use:

• Mar 2022 to Sep 2026: Career break to raise children.
• Jan 2023 to Jun 2025: Career break for family care responsibilities.
• Customer Service Team Leader, Northfield Retail Group, Jan 2020 to present (maternity leave, Feb 2025 to Mar 2026).

You decide how much to share. A short neutral phrase is enough, and you do not need to include details about your children, your age or your marital status. Do not stretch the dates of a previous job to cover the break: dates can be checked at reference stage. Our guide to explaining a gap in employment covers this in more depth.

Step 2: Open with your professional background

Your profile is the first thing a recruiter reads, so use it to say who you are professionally, not to explain the break. State your trade and strongest experience, mention the return in half a sentence, and say what kind of role you are looking for. Career Returners suggests two or three sentences that state you are returning after a career break.

If you are not sure how to word a profile, our CV personal profile examples show the structure.

Step 3: Add what you really did during the break

Employers read a break more easily when it comes with something concrete. Career Returners suggests including work done during the break, such as a small business or freelance work, and skilled volunteering such as a school governor or charity treasurer, as proper roles rather than hiding them in a volunteering section at the end. It also suggests including relevant training, even short or online courses (Career Returners). The National Careers Service says to concentrate on the transferable skills you gained (gaps) and to add new skills to your CV, saying how you gained them (skills).

A word of caution: be specific and checkable. Raising children is real and demanding work, but a general claim such as "excellent multitasker" is not evidence. Name the actual activity, such as running a budget, coordinating volunteers or completing a course, and only include what you really did. Our guide to skills for a CV shows how to back a skill with a real example.

Step 4: Bring any out-of-date skills up to date

If part of your field has moved on during the break, the National Careers Service suggests updating skills that may have gone out of date, with part-time, online or evening courses and free training, and notes that funding or childcare help may be available. Add a new qualification or course to your CV only once you have completed it, or mark it clearly as in progress. If you are changing direction as well as returning, see our guide to a career change CV.

Step 5: Keep the layout standard

It can be tempting to use a skills-only CV that pushes the dates out of sight. Career Returners advises against using that format to hide a break, saying recruiters find it irritating and that returner programmes may pass over applications that cover one up. A normal CV with the break shown plainly, your strongest evidence first inside each role, and two sides of A4 at most works for most UK applications.

Step 6: Prepare your interview answer

You may be asked about the break. Career Returners suggests a "career break sandwich" for the opening question "tell me about yourself": talk first about what you did before, then explain the break briefly without apologising, and finish with where you want to go now (Career Returners). It warns that spending most of the answer on the break undersells the experience that comes before it. Prepare a longer version and a short version, and practise out loud.

Notice the shape: the past, the break in one sentence with something concrete in it, then the future. There is no apology and no detail about childcare arrangements. If you want to practise telling it as a short story, our guide to the STAR method shows how to structure an answer, and the competency-based interview guide covers the question types you may meet.

What you do not have to share

Acas says a job applicant does not have to say she is pregnant, and that if she does, the employer must not treat her unfavourably because of it. It also says employers should never ask applicants whether they are pregnant or planning to have children (Acas). Pregnancy and maternity is one of the protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010, and Acas explains that discrimination can happen during recruitment as well as at work (Acas).

In practice, you choose what to say about your family. If a question about your children or your plans feels out of place, you can answer briefly about your availability for the working pattern in the advert, or ask how the question relates to the role. If you believe you have been treated unfairly, the Acas pages linked in the sources are a sensible first place to read. The protections in the Equality Act depend on the circumstances, so this guide does not say whether any particular question is unlawful.

Your rights if you are returning to an employer

This section applies if you are an employee coming back from maternity leave to the same employer. These are the rules as at October 2026, and the flexible working rules differ in Northern Ireland. Agency, casual and zero-hours workers may not have all of these rights, so check the linked pages for the detail that applies to you.

• Length of leave. Statutory maternity leave is 52 weeks: 26 weeks of ordinary leave followed by 26 weeks of additional leave. You do not have to take all of it, but you must take at least two weeks after the birth, or four if you work in a factory (GOV.UK).
• Your job. GOV.UK says that if you took 26 weeks of leave or less, you have the right to return to your job. If you took more than 26 weeks, you have the right to return to your job or, if that is not possible, to a similar one on the same or better terms and conditions (GOV.UK). Acas gives more detail on what counts as a suitable alternative (Acas).
• Keeping in touch days. You can agree up to 10 optional keeping in touch days with your employer during maternity leave. Both of you must agree, and taking them does not affect your leave or pay (GOV.UK).
• Changing your return date. You must give at least eight weeks' notice (GOV.UK).

Flexible working

If you are an employee, you can ask for flexible working from your first day in a job (GOV.UK). You can make two statutory requests in any 12-month period. Your employer must decide within two months, or longer if you agree, and must discuss the request with you before refusing. It can refuse only for one of a list of business reasons (applying, after the application). Acas counts the two months as including any appeal (Acas). Changes under the Employment Rights Act 2025 are expected in 2027, and Acas says it expects them to take effect in autumn 2027. They are not in force yet and dates may change (Acas, Acas news).

Keeping in touch days and the right to return are for employees on leave with an employer. If you are returning after a longer break and applying to a new employer, they do not apply, but the right to request flexible working still does once you start the job.

Returner programmes and routes back

Some employers run structured returner programmes, often called returnships, for people who have been out of work for a period. Career Returners, which changed its name from Women Returners in 2024 to include returners of all genders, lists current programmes and runs a community for returners (About, opportunities). These programmes usually have closing dates and set start dates, some require a minimum length of break, and in 2025 Career Returners reported that many had been paused (Career Returners). Always check the dates for the current year before you plan around one.

In health care, the NHS runs return to practice routes for nursing, midwifery, health visiting, allied health professions (for HCPC registrants), practitioner psychology and healthcare science, with funding and eligibility that vary by route (NHS Employers, NHS Health Careers). The Civil Service has run returner placements in the past, but the GOV.UK guidance on the programme dates from 2018, so check Civil Service Jobs for what is open now (GOV.UK).

Check your CV before you send it

Run the free CV scan, which runs in your browser and uploads nothing, or try the free CV checker to catch missing dates and unclear gaps. Both are automated checks, not a verdict from an employer.

FAQs

Should I mention maternity leave or a career break on my CV?

You decide how much to share. The National Careers Service suggests stating briefly why you took time off, and a short labelled line with real dates avoids leaving the reader to guess. You do not need to give details about your children.

Should I use a skills-based CV to hide the break?

It is better not to. Career Returners advises against using a skills-only layout to hide a break. A standard CV with the break shown plainly and your strongest evidence first is usually safer.

How do I explain a long break in an interview?

Keep it to about half a minute: what you did before, the break in one sentence with something concrete from it, and where you want to go now. Say it calmly, do not apologise, and then return to the job.

Can an employer ask if I plan to have children?

Acas says employers should never ask applicants whether they are pregnant or planning to have children, and that an applicant does not have to say she is pregnant. You choose what to share. See the Acas pages for what to do if you think you have been treated unfairly.

Do I have the right to ask for flexible working?

If you are an employee, yes. In Great Britain you can ask for flexible working from your first day in a job, with two statutory requests allowed in any 12 months. Your employer must consider the request and can refuse only for certain business reasons. Changes expected in 2027 are not yet in force.

How Evident helps

Evident compares your CV with the job advert, asks up to five targeted questions to find the experience you may not have written down, and drafts wording only from your answers, which you approve line by line. If you volunteered, studied or did informal work during a break and never wrote it down, those questions are how that evidence comes out.