Work-Life Balance at UCL; what the law says and what our policies enable
Work Religion/Belief Future Health Community Relationship Family & Friends Hobbies
Work Life Balance (WLB) The Work Foundation considers that It is achieved when an individual's right to a fulfilled life inside and outside paid work is accepted and respected as the norm, to the mutual benefit of the individual, business and society.
Different ways to work Flexitime / core hours Annualised hours / term time working Shift working / Rota working Compressed hours Part time working Job share/splitting Remote working Career breaks
UCL Work Life Balance Policy Right to request flexible working open to all employees who have completed 6 months service Requests must be made in writing to Line Manager/HoD Not monitored corporately; allows departments to develop their own approaches (Faculty approach?) HR staff can give advice
Maternity provision UK Paid time for antenatal care 52 weeks leave Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) Keeping in touch days (KIT) Right to return to work Annual leave UCL 18 weeks full pay If funding ends, UCL will try to redeploy Research active academics may apply for one term of sabbatical leave Childcare vouchers Workplace nursery
Paternity/Partners provision UK 2 weeks leave Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP) Employed for a minimum period Taken as a block of one week or 2 weeks Taken within the 8 weeks following the baby s birth UCL 4 weeks leave Full pay No qualifying period Can be taken as individual days or in blocks Can be taken during a 6 month period
Additional Paternity/Partners Leave (APL) In addition to the Paternity/Partners Leave above, an employee can take an additional 2 to 26 weeks of leave, if the mother returns to work before exhausting all of her Maternity Leave. There is no qualifying length of service for APL. An employee who qualifies, can receive any statutory pay not taken by the mother and this is called Additional Statutory Paternity Pay. APL must start no earlier than 20 weeks after the baby is born and must be used within a year of the birth. Up to 10 'Keeping in Touch' days may be agreed during APL Further information is available in the UCL Policy on Leave for Domestic and Personal Reasons.
Sabbatical Leave Available to research active academics, when returning from - Maternity/Adoption Leave - Additional Paternity Leave - Extended Carer s Leave - Long-term sickness absence Allows one term free from teaching commitments Requests should be made to HoD within 4 weeks of the return to work
Parental Leave @ UCL Unpaid Available to all employees with 1 years service 18 weeks per child Maximum of 4 weeks per year Taken before the child s 8 th birthday / 18 th birthday Taken within 8 years of placement for adoption
Childcare Vouchers Nurseries, childminders, breakfast clubs, afterschool care, school holiday schemes Vouchers up to 55 a week (or 243 a month) Salary sacrifice Savings of around 900 a year for basic-rate taxpayers www.kiddivouchers.com (UCL Ref: S910484a)
UCL Policies & Procedures An A-Z listing of all UCL HR policies is available at www.ucl.ac.uk/hr Work Life Balance Maternity Leave/Maternity Calculator Leave for Domestic and Personal Reasons (includes Paternity/Partner s leave and Parental Leave) Sabbatical Leave Childcare Voucher Scheme
Employee Assistance Programme Workplace Options provides an independent Employee Assistance Programme available to all staff at UCL. This is a free, confidential, and independent resource to help staff with the balance of work, family and personal life. The service is available 24/7 by phone, email, or online; www.workplaceoptions.com
Thank you! Anne-Marie Howard HR Policy Officer anne-marie.howard@ucl.ac.uk
Using this information in your application Outline the support offered by UCL, but always explain. What you re doing to publicise information and encourage and enable staff/students to take up UCL opportunities. SWAN want to see if good practice is embedded in the department - grass roots action Give evidence that staff are aware of opportunities and support (e.g. through survey data / take up rates) Outline anything the department is doing in addition to UCL policy
Using this information in your application 4. Supporting and advancing women s careers Flexibility and managing career breaks a)(i) Maternity return rate a)(ii) paternity, adoption and parental leave uptake a)(iii) numbers of applications and success rates for flexible working by gender and grade b)(i) Flexible working b)(ii) Cover for maternity and adoption leave and support on return In these sections you can outline UCL policy and explain how you support and enable staff to take advantage of them, along with anything you do in addition.
Using this information in your application 2. The self-assessment process a) A description of the self assessment team: members roles (both within the department and as part of the team) and their experiences of work-life balance Have members of the team benefited from any UCL work-life balance policies? Have they been supported by the department? 4. Supporting and advancing women s careers Key career transition points b)(i) Recruitment of staff How are applicants who have had career breaks or previously worked part time given fair consideration in the recruitment process? Have all recruiters had relevant and up to date UCL training? b)(ii) Support for staff at key career transition points Some departments have identified maternity leave as a key transition point if very few women return from leave
Using this information in your application 4. Supporting and advancing women s careers (cont) Career development a)(i) Promotion and career development How are staff who work flexibly or part time supported through the promotion process? How are career breaks considered when considering staff for promotion? Organisation and culture b)(ii) workload model Comment on how part time working and career breaks are catered for and considered in your workload models (or equivalent) b)(iii) timing of departmental meetings and social gatherings Are staff working part time or flexibly considered and consulted? Are timings regularly reviewed or changed? How are staff on career breaks kept up to date with important information whilst on leave?
Examples of good practice across UCL The Institute of Child Health (ICH) and the Institute of Ophthalmology (IoO) have run career events for early career researchers, these events have included information on maternity, paternity and flexible working at UCL. The Division of Medicine (DoM) have allocated 25K per annum in order to provide technical support to supervisors while female students are on maternity leave and during their return to work. The MRC Lab for Molecular Cell Biology (LMCB) have publicised additional paternity leave to staff through their Athena SWAN notice board. The Institute of Neurology (IoN) have two maternity mentors. The mentors (one clinical academic, one non-clinical academic) are both female staff who have taken maternity leave and returned to work at IoN. All staff who request maternity leave are offered the support of one of the two mentors. Psychology and Language Sciences (PALS) have an online system that is used to annually monitor workload
Examples of good practice across UCL The Director of the MRC LMCB keeps in touch with those on leave and invites them to department events. Biochemical Engineering HoD has one to one meetings with staff, during these meetings they discuss flexible working arrangements and opportunities for home working. IoO have developed a parents mailing list which used to distribute useful information including parent support at IoO, local childcare options and UCL policy information. Members of the mailing list are also encouraged to use the email list to ask each other questions and offer support. LMCB have included a discussion about options for flexible working into the appraisal system. Computer Science have started a Post-Break award this award of 10,000 is intended to support the awardee to get their research back up to speed.
Examples of good practice across UCL IoO have negotiated a 10% discount at a local nursery for IoO staff The Institute for Women s Health offer postgraduate courses that are designed to be extremely flexible these courses can be completed part time over 5 years. PALS held a maternity and paternity interviews to learn more about perceptions of leave and flexible working in the department LMCB meetings are held in core hours, but also aim to avoid school holidays. Information on maternity, paternity and flexible working policies have been added to induction packs and information given to new staff by DoM, Eastman Dental Institute, Mental Health Sciences, IoO, PALS and Institute for Women s Health. The DoM are setting up a mentoring scheme for women in the department. It is intended that the mentoring scheme will also provide support for female researchers before, during and after periods of maternity leave.
Thank you Contact Details: Harriet Jones, Policy Adviser for Athena SWAN Harriet.jones@ucl.ac.uk