Parents and carers newsletters

The Employee Engagement team will be sending out newsletters to parents and carers within the College detailing the current resources and support schemes within the College.

The College is committed to supporting Parents and Carers to achieve a good work life balance. We know finding the ideal balance between work and home can make a significant difference to your family relationships and success at work. We hope you find the resources highlighted in this newsletter useful.

You can view the newsletters here or alternatively contact the Parents Network or Carers Network to be added to the mailing list.

Newsletters

First Edition

Welcome to this first edition of the Parents and Carers Newsletter.

Working Families

For the first time since completing the benchmark, the College has progressed from being named in the Top 30 Employers to being in the Top 10 Employers for Working Families out of over 100 organisations, and is the only University to achieve this.

Online Networks

The College have a dedicated Parents Network page and Carers Network page which aim to provide all relevant policies and information in one place.

Alongside this are the Parents Yammer page and Carers Yammer page where you can receive updates on new resources, webinars and events in addition to being able to build networks with your colleagues to provide mutual support, ideas and good practice.

Increased Caring Responsibilities During Covid-19

This carers’ guidance has been developed to support staff who are working during the Covid-19 pandemic whilst also caring for dependants. View the webpage and the guidance (College log-in required).

Carers UK Membership

Following the 2019 Staff Survey and feedback from Carers Focus Groups, Imperial has become a member of Carers UK to help create a supportive working environment for staff with caring responsibilities.

In partnership with Carers UK, we ran a series of virtual events during National Carers Week (8-14 June), including a workshop run by Carers UK and a Carers’ Networking Session. Slides from the workshop are available.

Our membership of Carers UK opens up access to a huge range of resources available for whenever you need them: sign up for free with access code #EFC1845 to access.

My Family Care

The College have signed up with My Family Care which is an external service designed to meet the demands and challenges for working parents and carers through back-up care services, advice with an expert, online articles, updates and webinars. My Family Care can organise emergency childcare, school holiday cover and backup adult/elder care.

Their most recent resources which may interest you include:

Parent Scheme

This is a free resource to support parents and those with caring responsibilities, recently launched.

Elsie Widdowson Fellowship Award

The fellowship allows academic staff to concentrate fully on their research upon returning from maternity, adoption, surrogacy and/or shared parental leave. Dr Asha Patel, a recent awardee, discusses how the fellowship is benefiting her in Imperial News.

Support at Home Calendar

We have put together a Support at Home calendar pulling together all resources in one place for staff to view, which is updated weekly. This not only includes College, but also some external events. You can view this here. If you would like to get in touch with us or have an item you wish to publish on the calendar, please contact emily.michael@imperial.ac.uk or h.young@imperial.ac.uk.

Parent Buddy Scheme

We have recently relaunched the Parent Buddy Scheme.

You can now sign up to be matched with another member of staff who has recently gone through family leave (before, during and after). Your parent buddy will act as a sounding board to answer any questions you may have and provide support. You can find further advice on the scheme online. 

Please contact the Parents inbox if you are interested in signing up to the scheme.

Upcoming Network Sessions

The Employee Engagement team in HR are running monthly virtual parent and carers networking sessions.

Our sessions will give you an opportunity to meet other carers/parents at work, to build networks with your colleagues and help enable mutual support. A representative from HR will also be available to answer your questions.

The next Babies and Bumps session will take place on Tuesday 6 October from 10.30 - 11.30. If you would like to join the next session, please email our Parents inbox for a Microsoft Teams invite. 

The next Carers Networking session will take place in November 2020- further details will be announced soon.

HR Policies

In addition to our Networking pages, you can also find dedicated HR guidance and the family leave policies on the HR webpages.

Postdoc Support

There is a similar network for the Parents Network under the Postdoc and Fellows Development Centre (for Postdocs and Fellows only). For further information on their support and upcoming events, please visit their webpages.

Parent Workshops

Every term, we offer three workshops that look at both the practical and emotional aspects to enable staff to develop in their careers post maternity, adoption, paternity/maternity support, or shared parental leave, through effective planning and communication.

 The next workshops will be taking place on a virtual basis in October 2020:

  • Preparing for Maternity Leave: Wednesday 7 October, 11.00 – 14.00
  • Working Parents: Thursday 8 October, 11.00 – 14.00 
  • New Fathers/Partners: Wednesday 14 October, 12.00 – 14.00

To sign up, search for the name of the workshop in the ‘My Training’ area of ICIS and click to enrol.

Contact Us

This newsletter has been produced by the Employee Engagement team within HR.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please contact carersnetwork@imperial.ac.uk and/or parents@imperial.ac.uk. As this is the first edition of this newsletter, please do get in touch to give us any feedback on anything you would like included in the future