NCT in Scotland

About 53,000 babies are born in Scotland each year. All parents with a young child and those expecting a baby are welcome to use NCT services, whether or not they are members. Over the next few years, we are hoping that we will be able to support even more parents in Scotland.

NCT members and branches

Scotland is governed by its own Parliament and has its own health and social care policies and structures. Although most of the population live in urban areas, there are large remote and rural areas too. Correspondingly, the 19 NCT branches in Scotland are varied. The largest is Edinburgh North with 275 members and the smallest is Oban with 11 members. In total, there are 1400 NCT members in Scotland.

Branches support families with antenatal classes, infant feeding support, opportunities for new parents to meet socially and sales of baby equipment (NCT Nearly New Sales). We also have a toolkit to help parents set up informal social groups and we run email and telephone sessions to support parents in remote areas. There are more than 40 breastfeeding counsellors, antenatal teachers, and students available to support parents in Scotland.

Raising awareness of the NCT

The NCT have been making people more aware of what we do to ensure more parents and professionals can access our information and support. We have a part time Scotland Community Development Worker making contact with voluntary and statutory services and health professionals, promoting the NCT Breastfeeding Line and helping branches reach more parents. Branches also take a proactive approach to distributing information about the NCT in health centres, community centres, libraries and shops.

Campaigning

Scotland has led the way in many maternity services developments, including the promotion of the Baby Friendly Initiative to maternity services across the country and passing the Breastfeeding Act (2005) to support women who want to breastfeed in public places. NCT campaigners have informed the debates and lobbied for these developments. The NCT is also actively involved in campaigning to promote community maternity units and protect those units under threat of closure. However, there is always more to do.

NCT representatives are currently campaigning to help health boards implement targets such as:

• Baby Friendly accreditation for hospitals,
• one to one midwife support throughout labour,
• antenatal education advisers within each health board and
• freestanding midwifery units alongside consultant units.

We are also hoping to increase parents’ input into policies and service delivery. We have run training sessions to encourage parents to volunteer on health services committees such as Maternity Services Liaison Committees (MSLCs) and we are running workshops to help health boards work with user representatives.

Achievements

The NCT is continuing to grow in Scotland. Over the past year there has been a 15% increase in NCT membership. To build on this achievement local branches are developing their own action plans and encouraging more women to train as NCT specialist workers. We can offer every expectant family or new parent in Scotland social activities, support, information, and a chance to volunteer, train and develop. We hope you will join us.