Antenatal Classes

You are entitled to paid time off work for antenatal classes. In accordance with Agenda for Change terms and conditions, “antenatal care” may include relaxation and parentcraft classes. It is expected that, where there is a choice, appointments will be made outside working hours. You may be asked for verification of the relevant dates after the first appointment.

Midwife Appointments

These are similar to hospital or GP appointments : you have a right to attend as many midwife appointments as is necessary for you. If these are arranged during working hours you should be given time to attend. It is worth trying to ensure your appointments don't fall during on call or nightshifts if at all possible (you often know in advance what "week" of pregnancy they will fall) and it is always best to give your relevant ward team adequate notice.

KIT/SPLIT days

Those on maternity leave are entitled to 10 KIT (Keeping in touch) days. This is not pro-rata to your percentage of working prior to leave. Those on Shared Parental Leave are entitled to 20 SPLIT (Shared Parental Leave in Touch) days. You are not obliged to take KIT days and should not feel pressured to take them if you do not wish to.

It is generally recommended that you take these in the unpaid portion of maternity leave, or on the days that you are on SMP only as you do not receive your maternity pay for the day that you work. You will be paid for the hours that you did work at your usual hourly rate (this is about 25% less than staff bank rates).

You must take KIT days before your accrued annual leave starts (ie during your maternity leave). Another consideration is that (usually) you may need to source childcare whilst on a KIT day, so don't feel pressure to arrange or agree to these too far in advance if you are not sure what your circumstances will be with regards to this.

You should agree with your department how you should use these days. In practice, it may be your clinical or educational supervisor that is best placed to help with this. Have a think about what would be most useful for you. Examples of KIT/SPLIT days include:

· Attending teaching (eg local/regional/national teaching days)

· Attending conferences (some Colleges and Societies make provision for parent and baby rooms, for example, so that you could watch the talks in a live stream next door). You could also attend a conference virtually either live or in bite size chunks after the event. You are still eligible to apply for study leave funding for conferences or courses.

· Completing audit/QI projects.

· Focused return to work courses. These are available locally for some trainees (eg anaesthetics runs “Carry on Gassing”) or you might find one targeted at your specialty but available nationally.

· Courses- if courses such as ALS, APLS, NLS or PROMPT are due to expire, you might find them a useful refresher and confidence builder before your return to work. You should also feel able to attend any other training days run for your cohort which you feel would be of use (eg IMT Bootcamp). You may find further simulation courses are available in the Scottish Centre for Simulation and Human Factors in Forth Valley which might give a boost in your confidence before your return to work.

· If you are not due a life support update but wish to refresh your skills, consider contacting the Resus Officers of the hospital you are returning too. They may be able to offer you a bespoke refresher.

· Exams. This is a tough one! All babies are different and some sleep beautifully, during which time you could of course study if you wished, but others may have many months of sleepless nights, or you may have a complicated post partum course. Do not feel obliged to sit an exam. If you do sign up and don’t feel ready, many colleges may allow you to defer to another sitting if you contact them in

good time. Equally, there is never really an optimal time, and some trainees have found being on maternity leave the optimal time for them to sit them.

· Completing a shift or two in the department that you will start with. You may even wish to work part of a weekend shift or night shift if that is relevant to your work. (Sometimes it can be easier to arrange child care out of hours if you have a partner or family working during weekdays).

· Arranging a day to go in to reactivate your logins etc. You may need to contact the departmental administrator in advance to ensure the necessary paperwork is completed. You may also use the day to complete any out of date LearnPro modules.