NCT Virtual Classes (due to Coronavirus)

[TwinklyTwinkle]

Hi everyone,

Me and my husband signed up to start NCT classes in April. Obviously with everything happening with Coronavirus, they've now been cancelled. We haven't been contacted to be told, but I saw it on their Facebook page that they are starting virtual sessions online instead. I called NCT to see if there was any chance of a refund or partial refund if we didn't feel virtual sessions were for us and they said they were still waiting to hear from Head Office (I got a feeling this wasn't true and they were trying to avoid refunds) she said they'd run 50 virtual classes already so far and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. We paid £200 for the classes including a breastfeeding session and I understand that everyone is in the same boat and this was unexpected, but I feel that's a lot to pay for what are now virtual classes. One of the main reasons I signed up was to try and meet other new local mums because I'm really worried about being isolated during maternity leave.

Has anyone had any experience of these virtual classes? We've also done the NHS Antenatal classes too which were helpful.

Has anyone considered that NCT can't afford to start refunding people? Lots of charities are likely to go to the wall during this crisis and they could well be one of them? They probably don't have loads of money to ride this out. Our local hospital have stopped any sort of courses and these at least offer a chance to meet local people, and I'm looking forward to at least having a group to meet up with after this is over.

@workingtoomanyhours please see my earlier post about their financial position and the ridiculous sums paid to some of their employees. This isn’t a charity it’s a business.

@Christmastree43 I agree I don’t really like video conferences I’m so much happier in person

@workingtoomanyhours have they considered many of us are on stat maternity pay alone now and no other income. I am.
My DP makes most of his money March - August all his work has cancelled and all we have to live on is my mat pay. This is a charity that is supposed to support parents not make life harder.

@GinUnicorn I have no idea - I know they do subsidised places for those on lower incomes as it says that on the booking info they send out.

I just received an email from NCT cancelling my end of April course as only 2 people signed up and offering to move us to a virtual course for people in the next town over (30 mins away). They have said if we don’t want to move they will refund us which sounds better than everyone else is being offered... I wonder if that’s because our original course is cancelled? We’re in South London and like a few people have mentioned, paid £333 for the course which feels really steep for a online course. I’ve been working from home for about 3 weeks now doing multiple video calls and quality just never seems that good, people talk over each other or not at all(!) and I just don’t see how we’d get anymore out of the course than just watching YouTube videos? I’m a FTM already feeling totally clueless and overwhelmed, really don’t know what to do! I know my husband will refuse to pay for an online course (our hypnobirthing course was moved online and turned out to be rubbish). Can anyone recommend any good online resources?

If you aren't bothered about doing it to meet people, then ask about doing a course that is based out of London as they do a shorter format that would only be about £140 or even less with the discount they were offering. Mine are very interactive, we are split in to groups, and we have a WhatsApp group to communicate with the teacher and among ourselves, so I would have thought much better than an online course.

I’m an antenatal teacher and l wrote about how NCT is supporting parents at the moment when the NHS is unable to do it. We understand that you are all disappointed that we can’t be physically together for the course but we are operating in unprecedented circumstances. Contrary to what some people are saying, we do not have vast reserves of cash to enable us to weather this storm like many other charities and the vast majority of head office staff have been furloughed because the NCT cannot pay their wages. Please check out my blog which explains what you will receive from our courses and give us a chance to show you what we can do to support you. Thanks. www.parentpartner.co.uk/nct-antenatal-classes-covid19/

Hi guys,

Had my first NCT virtual class today and it actually wasn't too bad! I've had horrendous nausea/vomitting all day so was actually quite glad to be doing it from home in the end. The NCT class leader made a lot of effort to set up a WhatsApp group during the week with everyone and get us all talking/getting to know each other and then in the session today via Zoom (which I'd never used before but was quite good for this purpose), we discussed the different stages of labour (when to know to go into hospital/when to call the midwife for guidance etc), pain relief methods and relaxation methods. She went into quite a lot of depth and the class was actually about 5-6 hours in the end so didn't miss out too much on the whole 7 it was scheduled as face to face. Zoom has the ability to do these 'breakout room' things where instead of all of you interacting together, they can break you up into smaller groups or 2 couples - quite nice for getting to chat to others more comfortably if you're a bit shy. There were presentation slides and images that get emailed to us following the group and links shared on the WhatsApp group.

Long term, I can't really tell yet whether we'll all end up meeting up after this is hopefully all over and forming bonds, but I'm quite hopeful, everyone seems really nice

*Side note - we paid around £200 (with a 15% refund) and they're making the best of a bad situation so we've been happy to just go with it. Personally, if I was in London and paid over £350, I'd probably seek a full refund. Not because what they're offering as an alternative isn't good (tbf you can see the course leaders genuinely are really trying, and it's not really their fault), but purely because it's a lot more money to not get what you originally signed up for. However, if you do decide to go for it, hopefully you'll get some nice friends, support and interaction out of it!

I'm an NCT practitioner. I totally understand people's frustration and disappointment.

I just suspect that if the NCT gave everyone a refund the charity would be completely wiped out. As it is they're shortly about to furlough the vast majority of their salaried staff, and practitioners like myself are facing a massive fall in income as the courses stop booking. I'm really worried about the impact of the fall in income on NCT breastfeeding support services which will be needed more than ever in the next few months.

FWIW I've got three online courses running at the moment. This is a first for me and I'm surprised how naturally and easily the conversation flows on Zoom. The sessions are only supposed to run for 1.5 hours but we've been going to at least 2 hours every time, and then spending quite a bit of time on WhatsApp. So far the feedback has been good and I have high hopes that the usual brilliant friendships and support within the group will happen.

@BadCatDirtyCat I’ve signed up to Bump and Baby too - are you in London?

@meshkeri why not check the latest accounts on the charity commission website that shows the cash at hand.

You are paying your chief executive circa £100,000 so you’re not that poor.

I'm starting NCT in May (due end of June) and in the same boat as everyone here. My view is to try and make the best of it. The CV situation has caused all businesses and charities grief and is a disaster from which no-one is unaffected. I am keen to try and keep a positive outlook and make the best of the situation I've found myself in. Reading the government and Imperial College reports as I have, we are looking like we are in for a longhaul of lockdowns, with potentially regular lockdowns continuing through the Autumn and into 2021 (potentially with breaks if they can keep the ICU numbers bubbling under capacity). Therefore as a new Mum I am unlikely to be able to have the first 6 months of baby's life as I imagined, with tonnes of face to face classes and groups. What I envisaged won't be happening and there's a risk that I may feel isolated (even more so than a new mum in "normal" times). Therefore, I may find myself reliant on any virtual contacts and friendships that I can forge now. I am therefore keen to meet the other NCT parents as we are all experiencing this - pregnancy and birth in a CV world - and it's not something that many of my my other friends, who had their babies in normal times, will relate to.

Also I doubt the NCT are raking in the rental fees for space they are no longer needing. The hotels and venues they rent space from will no doubt have already been paid, or will expect at last 50% of their contract to be fulfilled at least.

Hi all! :)
I'm due to start NCT in June (from South Wales, due mid July).
Has anyone started doing these sessions virtually - how are they going?
I received a generic email a month or so ago, to say courses would be moving to Zoom - no mention of what to do if you want to cancel although I've since read their cancellation policy. I've also seen that if you were to sign up today, you'd get a 15% discount so IMO it's a bit sneaky that everyone hasn't been offered a 15% discount as standard. Anyway.. torn between cancelling and waiting to see if they will take place in person, but by the time we know the answer, if it's Zoom I'd likely have bypassed the timeframe to get a whole(-£30) refund.
Thanks!

@EllieDeer you will be offered the reduction or a years free membership if you get in touch, or someone will contact you fairly soon.

Hi @EllieDeer, I'm from South Wales too and started my virtual NCT classes a couple of weeks ago! It's been ok so far, everyone is really friendly! I'm not sure yet whether we'll all end up meeting up after this which is primarily what I was interested in, but in terms of learning about the birth and stuff, it has been quite good! We had a breastfeeding session this week that was quite informative! I originally wanted a refund but was told because it was too close to the start date that I would only be offered 50% so we just decided to stick with it and they gave us a 15% refund of what we originally paid. If you start in June, you might be able to get a full refund with an admin charge (I think some people above posted about it) or maybe in June things might slowly start to return to normal fingers crossed!

I wouldn’t really recommend them over zoom and if I could have taken a full refund I definitely would have

They have no right to withhold the admin fees you are entitled to a full refund as it has changed.

@Gemmels I've had an email today as well that my course is 8 hrs instead of 18 as well. I'd been given the 15% refund when I previously complained and they said the course would be the exactly the same just over zoom. Then they've emailed today about the reduction in hours and they've said they're giving some money back but they works out to be about 8%. So I have had 23% back, but I'm getting 56% less course...

I understand what people are saying about it being a charity and I did want to keep the course, but the service and how it has been handled has been awful.

Will you still get the packs with freebies / discounts? Will attendees be able to talk to each other and share contact info via Whatsapp? If so then it should all be the same. If not then you definitely should get a refund. (Btw plenty of other providers have always had virtual parenting classs - they cost the same).

The freebies packs are being sent out by post as we got ours last week. According to the email I got, you should get a minimum of 12 hours zoom (which includes the BF and reunion) and the rest of the hours by WhatsApp. It said you still get the social interaction and friend group and I'm hopeful that by the time our group's babies arrive in early June, we'll be able to meet up soon after then anyway. We took the free membership option as looked like quite a few things in their members club we could use to save money. We live in quite a rural area so I'm hoping this is a good way to find other mums to be friends with

@workingtoomanyhours - in that case I think it’s a good deal. To be honest I would have loved a videoconference option as I was travelling out to classes in the evening after work and it got so tiring.

@GrumpyHoonMain my partner is thinking this is a better option so he can have a beer on the sofa after dinner, and then we can go straight to bed after! What a life we now lead...

@workingtoomanyhours - definitely the better option! I am so jealous!

@2020August
I’m an NCT practitioner. You’re concerned that you won’t get the time together with your group, and the hours that you’ve paid for. I wish I could reassure you by showing the level of dedication and determination within the NCT to support parents by providing an online course that meets the parents’ needs. It seems the written communication from the NCT hasn’t been getting that across, although our fantastic course administrators are available to talk individually about concerns.
The framework of Zoom sessions and WhatsApp sessions aims to balance the different types of face to face interactions/ information/ discussion. As with any NCT course your practitioner adapt and adjust to your particular group. The balance of Zoom and WhatsApp sessions has been adjusted over the weeks as practitioners and parents feed back, and most importantly, the practitioners CAN tweak the balance as the group needs. The hours have to be sent out so that parents know the basic timings. The Zoom breakout rooms means people can chat and do activities in small groups / pairs. Of course it’s not the same as a ‘normal’ course, but from what I’ve seen and heard there are actually some real benefits from the virtual sessions. People seem very relaxed being in their own homes, they can wear their PJs, they get to meet each other’s pets, and get a sense of each other as individuals. On an evening session couples can already be tucked up in bed!
Best wishes to you.