FAQ

For an application form and further information please email us on info@expectancy.co.uk. If you would like a telephone discussion with our Educational Director, Denise Tiran, please contact us to arrange a mutually convenient date and time (we strongly recommend this for midwives considering the Licensed Consultancy).

Our academic year runs from September to July. The Diploma / Certificate programmes commence in September but we take late applicants up to 30th November. The Acupuncture programme also commences in September but we are unable to accept late applicants. We process applications for our long programmes from January for the following September – for example, from January 2018 to commence in September 2018. You can apply at any time for a short course or single study day.

You must pay in full with your application for single study days and short courses. For our Diploma / Certificate and Acupuncture programmes we require a £600 non-returnable deposit (£500 + VAT), the balance is then payable in monthly instalments once you commence the programme. All payments must be made by bank transfer; direct debit arrangements must be in place for instalments.

Most of our courses are held in a community centre at 170 Pitfield Street, Shoreditch, London N1 6JH, ten minutes’ walk from Old Street tube station. Please note there is limited parking in the area (payable). We can provide information on local hotels – a Premier Inn and a Holiday Inn Express are nearby. Very occasionally other venues in the London area are used. All our study days are held at weekends, starting at 0900 hours, with a morning and afternoon break and about 45 minutes for lunch. The study days finish at 1630 hours on Saturdays and by 1600 hours on Sundays.

Yes. All our study days, short courses and long programmes are directly related to midwifery practice and can be used towards revalidation, each day equating to 7.5 hours of participatory learning. Midwives preparing for our Licensed Consultancy scheme who no longer intend to work in the NHS can ask our Educational Director to act as their confirmer for revalidation. All our courses are accredited by the Royal College of Midwives and/or the Federation of Antenatal Educators for continuing professional development.

If you complete a short course or study day with Expectancy you can use these towards our Diploma / Certificate programmes commencing the following September. If you have completed the moxibustion study day you can also use this towards the Acupuncture programme. You will receive a reduction on the programme fees for any study days completed in the previous academic year.

If you are completing an academic course elsewhere, you may be able to use Expectancy courses as Recognition of Prior Learning towards, for example, a Masters degree. However, this will depend on your university and you should discuss the matter with your lecturers there. You are unlikely to be granted credit if you have already asked for other post-registration courses to be taken into account.

No. Our courses focus on helping you to use selected aspects of different therapies within the clinical setting of maternity care and the parameters set by the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s document The Code: Professional Standards of practice and behaviour for nurses and midwives (2015). You will not be fully qualified in the therapy, and certainly not approved - nor insured - by the therapy’s regulatory body to teach the subject. Furthermore, you will not have gained any experience of using the therapy within midwifery in order that you can apply principles to practice.

Remember, each complementary therapy is a complete professional discipline in its own right, many of which take several years to learn. You would not expect someone to study a few days of midwifery and then start teaching others – so why presume you can teach complementary therapies to your midwifery colleagues?

Midwives who complete the Diploma or Certificate in Midwifery Complementary Therapies or the Certificate in Midwifery Acupuncture can obtain professional indemnity insurance for private practice from the Federation of Antenatal Educators (FEDANT). It is not possible for those who complete a short course to obtain insurance from FEDANT.

If you join our Licensed Consultancy, the Royal College of Nursing provides insurance for antenatal and postnatal midwifery care on condition that you are a full member. The Royal College of Midwives does not provide insurance cover for private practice, except for “occasional” treatments given outside your main employment. Midwives implementing complementary therapies in the NHS are covered by the hospital’s vicarious liability insurance and the RCM, on condition that you have managerial permission and local, up-to-date clinical guidelines in place.

Yes. Midwives on our Licensed Consultancy scheme who set up in private practice receive on-going clinical mentoring and business support, webinars and other educational opportunities and access to business services. They become part of a team of like-minded midwives offering maternity complementary therapies and other services, and benefit from networking to share ideas and experiences.

We can also provide courses on your own premises so that you can train a number of midwives in your chosen therapy. We offer follow-up consultancy services for maternity units implementing complementary therapies, including draft clinical guidelines, on-site supervision and assessment of practice and on-going mentoring.

For midwives who have completed our introductory courses we offer advanced courses in aromatherapy, massage, reflex zone therapy (reflexology), hypnosis and acupuncture.

Many of our short courses, as well as the Certificate in Midwifery Complementary Therapies can be delivered on your own premises, particularly if you wish to introduce aromatherapy into your care of women or want to set up a post-dates pregnancy clinic or moxibustion service. Please contact us on info@expectancy.co.uk for a brochure explaining how the system works. If you would like a telephone discussion with our Educational Director, Denise Tiran, before booking please contact us to arrange a mutually convenient date and time.