Network and support

NCT’s network of local branches exists to reach out to and support all parents and parents-to-be during a time of change in their lives. This network is possible because of the dedication of our volunteers, who along with local members organise a wide range of social activities and events to enable local parents to meet other parents and access valuable support. Local branches also fundraise to train specialist workers and fund projects.

Support services

The NCT offers a range of support services for parents. We are most known for our antenatal education and breastfeeding counselling, but we also run courses for new parents to help them adjust in their new role as parents.

Our services are open to all parents. We charge for services like our antenatal and postnatal courses. This is to cover the cost of organising courses and training our teachers and facilitators to an exceptionally high standard. We offer discounted rates in special circumstances and advise anyone wishing to access our courses to discuss their situation in confidence with our bookings coordinators.

We also run the Pregnancy and Birth Line and the Breastfeeding Line to support parents We publish our free Bumps & Babies magazine for expectant parents, and run this website.

Reaching out to all parents

Every year, NCT antenatal teachers, breastfeeding, counsellors, and postnatal leaders support over 100,000 parents directly. We reach many more - in fact over a million people each year - through our website, books, Bumps & Babies magazine, information leaflets and locally organised branch events like informal get togethers.

It is our mission to support all parents. Last year, one in ten of our 1500 NCT workers and volunteers did some outreach work to reach less advantaged parents. Of the parents we supported last year by telephone or face to face, one quarter were men (28%), 7% were from minority ethnic groups, at least 4% were from low income households, 1% were teenagers, and 1% had some type of disability or learning difficulty.

As well as the work done by individual workers and volunteers, we’ve:

• developed a ‘Reaching out toolkit’ with tips to help volunteers reach more diverse parents,
• developed a ‘Group Starter Pack’ to help less advantaged parents set up support groups,
• created a tool box to support antenatal teachers and professionals working with teenagers,
• hosted conferences, websites and training days to share ideas about reaching out,
• conducted needs assessments with ethnic minority communities,
• hired workers in Scotland and Northern England to target harder to reach parents,
• set up telephone helplines so we are more accessible to a wide range of parents,
• published promotional materials with images of young parents and ethnic minorities,
• funded training for parents who would not usually access our services,
• set up peer support courses to access less advantaged groups,
• written books and leaflets with communities such as deaf parents,
• and we’re beginning to translate our leaflets into additional languages.