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  3. Family Friendly Policies

Family Friendly Policies

Maternity and Other Family Leave Guidelines 

For any queries contact the HR Operations Team

QMUL Family-friendly policies and guidelines are designed to support employees in balancing their work responsibilities with family life, particularly during key life events such as the arrival of a child.  

We recognise our statutory legal duties and employees' rights to parental leave, as well as setting out, where eligible, other enhanced benefits and support for employees.   

Together, we aim to create an inclusive and supportive working environment, enabling employees to meet their family commitments while maintaining their careers by offering a range of provisions; 

  • Unpaid parental leave and neonatal leave 
  • Parental and partner bereavement leave 

In addition, the University has produced guides for staff on the following topics: 

  • Queen Mary Fertility Treatment Guidance. The University recognises the physical and emotional stresses of undergoing fertility testing and treatment and wants to support those staff who are going through the process. Our Fertility Treatment guidance is intended to assist eligible staff members in the logistical and emotional aspects of undergoing treatment.   

Maternity Leave Policy and Guidance 

Please read the documents below for advice and guidance on the Maternity Leave. 

Please see below all the relevant forms should you wish to submit a request for Maternity Leave:  

Risk Assessment 

If you are pregnant, you and your manager will need, early in the pregnancy, to review together: 

  • the health and safety risk assessment for your work and workplace; and 
  • how you may be affected while you are pregnant or breast-feeding. 

Use the Queen Mary Pregnancy Risk Assessment Form and Guidance [DOC 100KB] to do this. Further information is available via the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) - the key official source for pregnancy risk and hazard guidance: 

 

Shared Parental Leave Guidelines 

Shared Parental Leave is quite a complex process which involves a number of different elements that interact including maternity leave and pay and leave and pay taken by your partner.  Therefore, please speak to a member of the HR team before making any plans or commitments in relation to Shared Parental Leave to ensure you fully understand your entitlement.   

Please see below all the relevant forms should you wish to submit a request for Shared Parental Leave:  

 

Unpaid Parental Leave 

Eligible parents have the right to unpaid time off work when they need to look after their children. This is called 'ordinary parental leave' or unpaid parental leave. Parental leave is additional to other types of time off. For example: 

  • maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave – for when someone's having a baby or adopting a child 
  • neonatal care leave – for parents to have additional time off to be with a baby who is receiving neonatal care 
  • carer's leave 
  • bereaved partner's paternity leave 
  • holiday 

An employee can take parental leave to be with their child so they can: 

  • provide care when usual childcare arrangements are disrupted and the time off can be planned in advance 
  • spend more time with them 
  • look after them during school holidays 
  • care for them when they're off school sick 
  • go to school open days or events with them 
  • settle them into new childcare arrangements 
  • visit grandparents or other relatives with them 

Eligibility 

Employees are eligible for parental leave from the first day of employment. The employee must have parental responsibility for the child. Employees will still accrue their holiday entitlement as usual while on parental leave. 

Taking parental leave 

Employees can take up to 18 weeks of parental leave per child until each child turns 18. Parents can only take leave: 

  • in blocks of 1 week (An employee can take parental leave a day at a time if they have a child with a disability). If you take less than 1 week off it will still count as 1 week’s block of Parental leave. 
  • up to 4 weeks a year for each child 

The employee needs to give their manager a minimum notice of 21 days before the date the employee wants to start a block of parental leave. 

Managers, if necessary, can use their legal right to postpone unpaid parental leave for up to six months if the University cannot cope with the employee's absence (unless the leave follows immediately after the time the child is born or, for an adopted child, the time of the placement). This will need to be confirmed to the employee in writing within 7 days of the receipt of the request.  

A manager cannot postpone the dates of parental leave if the employee has asked to start it on: 

  • the day of a child's birth 
  • the date a placement for adoption starts 

Application for Unpaid/Special Leave [DOC 19KB]

Special Leave Policy and Procedure 

Please note that compassionate leave and other leave for family reasons (including time off for dependants) is covered under our Special Leave Policy and Procedure. 

Queen Mary also provides several additional categories of leave.  A selection of these are listed below as part of our Special Leave Policy and Procedure: 

  • Compassionate Leave 
  • Parental Bereavement Leave 
  • Bereaved Partner’s Paternity Leave 
  • Neonatal Leave 
  • Carers Leave 
  • Unpaid Leave 

Please see below for a downloadable version of the Application form for Special Leave from the appendix of the Policy: 

 

 

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