Antenatal appointment request form

All pregnant employees have a statutory right to take time off work to attend antenatal appointments. You can provide our form for them to complete when they want to take such time off.

Legal position

The legislation provides that all pregnant employees are entitled to take paid time off work to attend antenatal appointments that have been made on the advice of a registered medical practitioner, registered midwife or registered nurse. This is a day one right, and there’s also no set limit on the duration of the time off or the number of appointments that can be attended – on average, pregnant women attend around ten antenatal appointments during their pregnancy, and you should be prepared to potentially allow up to six and a half hours per appointment. For the purpose of the statutory right, antenatal appointments don’t just cover medical appointments with the employee’s GP, clinic or hospital; they can also include parenting or relaxation classes if those classes have been recommended by a doctor, midwife or nurse. Always ask for specific confirmation that the appointment has been arranged on such medical advice.

pay

During their time off, the pregnant employee should be paid at their normal hourly rate of pay, calculated by dividing one week’s pay by the number of normal working hours in a week. Where working hours vary from week to week or over a longer period, the amount of one week’s pay is divided instead by the average number of normal working hours calculated by dividing by twelve the total number of the employee’s normal working hours during the period of twelve weeks ending with the last complete week before the day on which the time off is taken.

evidence

Except in the case of the first appointment during their pregnancy for which they’ve requested to take time off, you can ask the pregnant employee to produce either or both of: (1) a certificate from their doctor, midwife or nurse confirming their pregnancy; and (2) an appointment card or some other evidence showing that the appointment has been made.

Form contents

Our Antenatal Appointment Request Form asks the employee to provide the date and time of their appointment and when they would propose to leave and return to work. You can request the employee to make their appointments as close to the start or end of their working day as they can, but in practice you should accept that they may have little control over the timing of some of the appointments. Our form also asks the employee to confirm that the appointment has been made on the advice of a registered medical practitioner, midwife or nurse and requests them to attach both a certificate stating they’re pregnant and proof of their appointment.