Being pregnant at work checklist for leaders

What can you do?

Be ready to support pregnant women at work

Let your staff know that you and your leadership team will support pregnant women and new mothers at work and ensure that their pregnancy, maternity, equality and health and safety rights at work are enforced.

• Provide a private, clean, safe space for pregnant women to rest.
• Display the NEU’s Being pregnant at work posters in your workplace.
• Read the NEU model policy. Changes can be made to the policy through negotiation; for guidance, use the process set out in the trade union recognition agreement if you have one or discuss this with your NEU rep if you don’t.
• Share the material with your SLT and discuss the benefits of having such a policy in place: reduced sick days, improved wellbeing and better performance to name but a few. Remember to discuss your duty of care as an employer and the impact on your staff.
• Insert the school/college name in the policy and make sure it is included in the employee handbook or equivalent.
• Use this checklist to develop pregnancy and maternity support plans into your management practices.
• Make sure that your school/college/local authority or trust monitors and reviews working practices and decisions, including pay and promotion decisions, to ensure that pregnant women and new mothers are treated with dignity, respect and fairness. Check that they are not subjected to harassment or any other detriment or disadvantage on grounds of sex, pregnancy and maternity or any other protected characteristic.
• Be aware that many Black and Asian women will not be receiving appropriate individualised or culturally sensitive maternity care outside of work. This can impact on their physical and mental health at work. You can offer appropriate support and ask about what workplace procedures might need adjustment to ensure that expectant Black and Asian women feel supported and valued in their workplace.
• Share pay progression data and non-confidential equality monitoring data with the recognised trade unions.
• Assess the risks to women of childbearing age as part of your general workplace risk assessment, in line with regulation 16 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. Hold information on infectious diseases and steps to be taken in the event of an infection, especially rubella, chickenpox, slapped cheek disease (parvovirus) or cytomegalovirus (CMV).

When a woman discloses her pregnancy

• When a woman discloses her pregnancy, share relevant policies and procedures, schedule in a meeting to discuss and agree a pregnancy and maternity support plan with her.
• Respect her privacy and don’t disclose her confidential information until she has agreed. Discuss when and how she would like to disclose her pregnancy to other staff, students and parents. If she is an agency worker, seek her consent to liaise with the agency on health and safety matters.
• Let her know what room she may use if and when she needs to rest or lie down. This should be close to the toilets.
• Carry out an individual risk assessment in collaboration with the pregnant woman and her union rep if they have been informed. You can make use of the NEU Model Risk Assessment. The Health and Safety Executive guidance on individual risk assessments explains the employer’s duty. Failure to undertake such a risk assessment can amount to direct sex discrimination.
• Make sure that the pregnant woman is provided with safe work or suitable alternative work while you arrange the risk assessment. If this is not possible you should treat the woman as suspended on full pay (Note that a medical suspension on full pay, related to a risk assessment, is not sick leave) until you are able to carry out a risk assessment and to make adjustments.
• Make use of the NEU domestic abuse checklist for leaders if a pregnant woman reveals that she is experiencing domestic abuse and consider adopting the NEU domestic abuse model policy. 

Following a risk assessment

• If the risk assessment reveals a risk to the mother or her baby, take all reasonable steps to remove it or prevent exposure to it:
  Step 1: Temporarily alter the woman’s working conditions or hours of work, if this is reasonable and avoids the risk, such as allowing extra breaks, ensuring that she can sit down and avoiding heavy lifting. This applies to employees and agency workers.
  Step 2: If step 1 is not possible or does not avoid the risk, offer suitable alternative work on terms and conditions that are not substantially less favourable than the woman’s original job.
  Step 3: If there is no suitable alternative work, suspend the woman on full pay for as long as necessary to avoid the risk.
  Steps 2 and 3 apply to employees, and agency workers with more than 12 weeks in the same placement.
• Provide information on the risks and what action has been taken.
• Review the risk assessment as the woman’s pregnancy progresses.
• Inform pregnant staff, parents or students of any outbreaks of rubella, chickenpox, slapped cheek disease (parvovirus) or cytomegalovirus (CMV) and make immediate arrangements to prevent pregnant women from being exposed to infection.
• Support requests for paid rest breaks: reasonable adjustments to the working day enable pregnant women to rest.
• Provide appropriate cover where a woman needs an extended morning, midday or afternoon break to rest or recover from pregnancy sickness.
• Build in suitable breaks for pregnant women at work between the ordinary school or college day and other activities that it is safe for her to attend such as clubs, parent evenings and meetings.
• Make sure that pregnant women are able to leave work on time to avoid exhaustion.
• Protect teachers’ PPA time; pregnant teachers should not be asked to take their rest breaks in their PPA time.

Managing any absences

• Make sure that any pregnancy related sickness is recorded separately and is not used as a trigger to impose an absence management sanction as this is unlawful.
• Facilitate pregnant women’s requests for paid time off to attend antenatal appointments and classes and plan for appropriate cover. Antenatal appointments are important for the health of pregnant women and their babies. Pregnant women should not be deterred from attending antenatal appointments and pregnant teachers should not be asked to use their PPA time for antenatal appointments.
• Ensure that any planned or unplanned absences related to pregnancy or maternity are not used to deny pay progression or career opportunities or in any redundancy selection determinations.