Carers' Support

There are two schemes offering financial support:

  • Financial support for carers attending work-related events taking place outside of College
  • Financial support for College-based events relevant to career development held outside of core hours or during half term holidays.

Further details about these schemes are listed below.

Financial support for carers attending work-related events

The College recognises that for those of you with caring responsibilities,Pound coins attending events such as conferences, work-related training days and similar work-related development opportunities is an important part of developing and maintaining your career.  The College also understands that attending such events can cause an additional financial burden if you need to make alternative care arrangements.

To help alleviate some of this burden, the College offers a scheme which may entitle you to a small grant of up to £250 if you have caring responsibilities. Your manager will be required to assess whether you qualify for this grant, which will be given in order to help meet the costs of care arrangements while you attend events in line with those mentioned above, either in the UK or internationally.

The College reserves the right to vary or discontinue the arrangement. It should be noted that Carers’ grants are provided on a discretionary basis and do not form part of your terms of employment.

Grant application

What the grant can fund

The grant can be used to fund additional/alternative care arrangements for your dependent to either stay at home while you travel, or to fund travel and associated care costs allowing the dependant to travel with you.

Note:

A dependant is a partner, child or parent, or someone who lives with you as part of your family. This could be, for example, an elderly aunt or Carer and older person grandparent. It does not include tenants or boarders who may be living in your family home.

You may make an application for this grant if the following conditions apply:
  • You have caring responsibilities and nobody else at your home can provide the care.
  • No alternative source of funding is available, e.g. from the conference/training etc. organiser or by other means, such as from research grant funding.  Where relevant it is your responsibility to provide evidence that no alternative source of funding is available.
  • The event/conference location is external to Imperial College.
  • The grant is to cover costs outside of the routine everyday care costs you normally incur.

What the grant does not cover

  • Attending conferences, work-related training days and similar work-related development opportunities training days etc. for which you will No stamper receive a ‘Keeping in Touch Day’ (KIT or SPLIT day) payment whilst on maternity or shared parental leave.
  • Attending any of the above-mentioned days at your normal work location or other Imperial College campus
  • Providing training to others which is not part of your own development.

Applying for the grant

  • Complete a Financial support for carers attending work-related events - Application
  • Apply the relevant account code from the list below, or contact your local department.
  • Forward the form to your line manager for consideration.
  • If approval for the grant is given by your department, you may proceed to claim this amount through Finance’s i-expenses system.
Submitting your expenses claim
  • Log into My Expenses to submit your grant claim.  Grants can be paid tax free as set out in the HMRC Employment Income manual.  You are responsible for ensuring that you meet the regulations set out in the manual in relation to claiming tax-free payments). 
  • You must use the dedicated faculty/departmental charging code, as set out below, when making your claim.
  • All receipts need to be sent to the Expenses office once the claim has been submitted on the system.  Receipts should be a signed statement including the date(s), hourly rate charged, hours of care provided and should identify the care giver/agency.  In exceptional circumstances the grant may be advanced to the member of staff, in which case receipts must be provided to cover expenditure following the conference and any excess funds will be returned to the College.
Faculty charge codes

Please code your expenses claim using the following account codes:

Business School

MSHQ G00000

Faculty of Engineering
  • Aeronautics: AEACG G00000
  • Bioengineering: BMAD G00000
  • Chemical Engineering: CENGA G00000
  • Civil & Environmental Engineering: CIVG G00000
  • Computing: COMPA G00000
  • Dyson School of Design Engineering: NDAA G00000
  • Earth Science & Engineering: please contact your local department for the relevant account code
  • Electrical & Electronic Engineering: EELS G00000
  • Materials: MMAD G48108
  • Mechanical Engineering: please contact your local department for the relevant account code
Faculty of Natural Sciences
  • Grantham Institute: CLRA_NS0025 or CLRA_G17004 – please contact Simon Bailey
  • Chemistry: CHEM G12124
  • Physics: PHYS G52128
  • Maths: MATH G00000
  • Life Sciences: LAAA G00000
  • Centre for Environmental Policy: LFADC G00000
All other Faculties

Please contact your local department for the relevant account code.

Financial support for carers attending College-based events relevant to career development

For College-based events related to career development that are held outside of core hours or during half term holidays, a seperate scheme is available.

As part of ongoing work to make Imperial more family-friendly and therefore more inclusive of staff with caring responsibilities, there has been a conscious effort to shift staff events (e.g. public lectures, seminars, workshops, meals with visiting seminar speakers) to more family-friendly dates and times of the day.

This is not always practical, meaning that sometimes events are held late in the day or during school half-term holidays. On such occasions, we aim to facilitate inclusion of employees with caring responsibilities by offering financial support to offset the additional cost of providing care (e.g. babysitting).

  • The scheme is open to all College staff and PhD students.
  • The scheme applies only to events held outside core working hours (09:00-17:00) or in designated school half-term holidays. It excludes events held during other school holidays (Christmas, Easter, Summer), for which staff might reasonably be expected to have care provision in place.
  • The scheme applies only to events held on one of the Imperial College campuses. (See elsewhere on this webpage for information on grants for caring-related expenses when attending conferences, workshops etc.  held outside College.)
  • Expenses can only be claimed for events that are directly relevant to the career development of the applicant, as determined by the member of staff’s line manager/supervisor.
  • Funds will be awarded as an expense claim (on a standard short application form and supported by a receipt), authorised by the relevant Head of Department or their delegate.
  • Awards are to be paid by the organisers of the events and are expected to be made at a level of £10 per hour up to a maximum of £50.