Entitlement for antenatal appointments

[Noodles14]

Hi all. I know we are entitled to time off work for antenatal appointments and my work (I'm a teacher) have been great so far with this but I wondered about antenatal classes. I've signed up to NCT and one of the sessions is on a Monday morning when I'd usually be at work. Having paid £300 for all of the sessions I don't want to miss one! Even though work are great, they very much abide by the rule book so I wondered if anybody knows if we are entitled to time off for antenatal classes or is it only medical appointments such as midwife and scans. Thanks all!

I'm not entirely sure but I think this entitlement is limited to medical appointments. Otherwise, there is a whole raft of things women could be wanting time off for: hypnobirthing classes, NCT, babycare preparation classes, etc.

When I did NCT, and my friends more recently have done it, you could choose between daytime or evening classes. Did your NCT not offer an evening course?

I missed one or two NCT classes for one reason or another. It didn't matter.

This is off the gov website

Pregnant employees have 4 main legal rights:

paid time off for antenatal care
maternity leave
maternity pay or maternity allowance
protection against unfair treatment, discrimination or dismissal
‘Antenatal care’ isn’t just medical appointments - it can also include antenatal or parenting classes if they’ve been recommended by a doctor or midwife.

This might be useful:
www.maternityaction.org.uk/advice-2/mums-dads-scenarios/pregnant/time-off-for-antenatal-care/

"There is no definition of antenatal care in law. It can include any classes, appointments or scans made on the advice of a registered doctor, midwife or health visitor.

Antenatal care can include classes such as relaxation, parentcraft or smoking cessation classes if these are recommended by your midwife of GP as part of your care. You may need a letter to show your employer from your GP or midwife, saying that these classes are part of your antenatal care."

Yes our policy is that the classes have to be recommended. So you might need a note from the midwife.

I really need to get on this actually!

I’d check your maternity policy. I work for the NHS and was surprised at how much was covered for “free” time off work antenatally (pretty sure it was worded along the lines of parentcraft classes as recommended by a midwife or something though)

If your Doctor or midwife recommends it then you're good. I don't have it I writing but I've been told by a few midwives to go to the Antenatal classes they do so I've got a day of for that, could probably get them or my gp to write it down if I needed to.

as others have said I'm pretty sure you need something in writing from the midwife to say that they have recommended it to get the time off. My previous workplace allowed time off for ante natal arts & crafts as long as you could prove that the midwife had recommended it

I was in exactly the same position last term. I just filled in an absence form (the process seems quite formal at my new school compared to my last one where you just spoke to the head if you needed extraordinary leave), but instead of ‘antenatal appointment’ in the reason box, I just put ‘antenatal class’. I figured they could ask me if they weren’t happy. No one did. Might be worth keeping it factual but simple, I normally have a tendency to ‘overshare’ and had been tempted to go to my head and explain at length what the appointment was for and why I felt it was justified but I’m glad I didn’t do this.

That morning session is really useful. Good luck!

Yes I think you are entitled to it. However I am surprised there wasn't a weekend or evening class available- I'm a teacher too and have tried really hard to arrange everything around work time so I've barely missed any school at all! If that's the only/best option for you though, then as far as I know you are legally entitled to it and if be surprised if your school kicked up a fuss.