Parents and Carers

The University is committed to supporting staff who maintain responsibilities as a carer alongside their job. Whether these responsibilities include caring for a child or caring for another dependent, we aim to work with our employees to facilitate a good work/life balance.

The following information outlines the University policies that are aimed specifically to help achieve this balance:

Requesting a change to working pattern

Parents and Carers' rights

The University is committed to helping working parents and carers and under legislation first introduced in April 2003 and extended in 2007, 2009 & 2011, staff whose children are aged under 18 (as of April 2011) or who have caring responsibilities for relatives, partners and people living with them may apply to work flexibly in order to help them meet their caring commitments. This may cover a range of circumstances, for example, for parents it may enable more time with the child or help with dropping children off at school or meeting them from school.

Eligibility

To qualify for the right to request adjustments to your working pattern as a parent you must have been employed continuously by the University for a period of 26 weeks at the date the application is made and you

must make the request no later than two weeks before the child’s 18th birthday
must have responsibility for the child’s upbringing and make the application to enable you to care for your child (applications should not be made for any other purpose than childcare)
must be either:
- the mother, father, adopter, guardian or foster parent of the child or
- married to or the civil partner/partner of the child’s mother, father, adopter, guardian or foster parent
should not have made a previous application to adjust their working pattern under this scheme during the past 12 months

To qualify for the right to request adjustments to your working pattern as a carer you must have been employed continuously by the University for a period of 26 weeks at the date the application is made and you

must be caring for a person aged 18 years or over who:
- you are married to, or are the civil partner/partner of; or
- is a relative; or
- is living at the same address.
should not have made a previous application to adjust their working pattern under this scheme during the past 12 months.

“Relative” is defined as mother, father, adopter, guardian, special guardian, parent-in-law, son, son-in-law, daughter, daughter-in-law, brother, brother-in-law, sister, sister-in-law, uncle, aunt or grandparent and step-parent, step-son, step-daughter, step-brother and step-sister. Half-blood relatives are also included, as are adoptive relationships and relationships which would have existed but for an adoption, i.e. an employee’s natural relatives.

Application

You must make an application in writing to your College Dean/Head of Service AND send a copy to your HR Business Partner, clearly stating the arrangements you would like to be considered and confirming that you meet the eligibility criteria detailed above.

All requests will be considered carefully and discussed with you but it is not an automatic right that any request will be granted. If your application is accepted, adjustments to your working pattern will initially be introduced for a trial period of up to six months (period to be defined at the outset) with a formal review at the end of the trial period. This review will provide the opportunity for you and your manager, subject to mutual agreement, to address any issues which may have arisen during the trial period, amend your working pattern accordingly and agree your adjusted working pattern as a permanent change to your terms and conditions of employment. A further formal review will be held after two years when you will have the option to revert to your previous working arrangement, subject to the University’s agreement.

There is scope for you to apply for a wide variety of different types of working pattern, for example you can request to

change the hours you work or
change the times when you are required to work or
work from home (whether for all or part of the week). Please see the homeworking policy. Please note that staff who are homeworking should not have sole responsibility for a child/children or other dependant during hours when they are working.

In your written application you will need to

confirm you meet the eligibility criteria (for example, that you are the parent of a child under 18 years of age and that you have responsibility for their upbringing or that you are the carer of a relative, as defined within this document)
confirm your current working pattern
describe the flexible working pattern you would like to work in future
indicate when you would like the change to commence
indicate the implications of the change (such as health and safety issues if requesting home-working)
indicate the affect it will have on your colleagues
indicate the ways in which implications can be managed

It is important for you to carefully think about which working pattern will help you best meet your commitments as a parent/carer, when you would like your new working pattern to begin and if you request a flexible working pattern that will reduce your hours it will reduce your pay as well. It is to your advantage to provide in your written application as much detail as possible about the flexible pattern of hours you would like to work.

Procedure

Within 28 days of the receipt of your written request your College Dean/Head of Service and a representative from Human Resources will arrange to meet with you. You are entitled to be accompanied, at the meeting, by a work colleague or union representative.

It may be that your initial proposal is not workable but that an alternative pattern can be agreed.

Within 14 days after the date of the meeting your HR Business Partner will write to you to confirm the outcome of the meeting with your College Dean/Head of Service.

If your request is accepted, the written confirmation will:

Include a description of the new working pattern
State the date from which the new working pattern is to take effect
Confirm any change in pay or other terms and conditions
Define the trial period and confirm review date
Be dated

If your request is rejected, the written confirmation will:

State the ground(s) for refusing the application
Provide a sufficient explanation as to why the ground(s) for refusal applies in the circumstances
Provide details of your right to appeal
Be dated

Appeal

If you are not happy about the outcome of the meeting, you have the right to appeal against the decision within 14 days of receipt of the letter by writing to the Director of Human Resources, setting out the grounds for your appeal.

Within 14 days after receiving notification that you wish to appeal an appeal meeting will be arranged with a Deputy Vice Chancellor, the Registrar and Secretary or nominee. At the meeting, you may be accompanied by a work colleague or union representative. You will be informed of the outcome of the appeal in writing within 14 days after the date of the appeal meeting. The appeal decision is final, but does not deny you the statutory right to take your complaint to an employment tribunal, to the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) or to use another form of dispute resolution.