Time off for antenatal and adoption appointments

Are you aware that new leave rights for antenatal and adoption appointments have been introduced for adopters, surrogates and partners of pregnant women? Apparently, many employers are unaware of these new rights. Acas have published new free guides to help explain the changes

Antenatal care is the care given to women during pregnancy. The number of antenatal appointments are often between seven and ten, although under certain circumstances or for certain medical reasons, some may require more.

Key points to be aware of:

• Pregnant employees are entitled to reasonable paid time off for antenatal care.
• Fathers, husbands, wives and partners of pregnant women are entitled to unpaid time off to attend two ante-natal appointments.
• Time off is capped at six and a half hours for each appointment.
• Adopters are allowed time off for adoption appointments.
• Surrogacy parents will be allowed unpaid time off for two antenatal visits.

There are two new guides:

Surrogacy – the rights for intended parents, which you can download here

Time off for antenatal appointments, which you can download here

Both guides set out key points and cover the basics around the leave rights and the legal requirements. They include top tips that employers and all prospective parents should be aware of when considering leave requests.

This month I have also alerted staff to the outcomes of new research carried out by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which highlighted a worrying level of discrimination experienced by staff when pregnant or returning from maternity leave. You can jump to this article here