Family and Leave Policies
At the Eastman Dental Institute, we foster a culture where you can be your whole self at work and we support family-friendly policies.
Pregnancy
- Parental Leave Toolkit – designed to assist employees with the relevant policies, forms, calculators and important information required before, during and after parental leave.
- Fertility Leave
- Time off for Antenatal Appointments
- Maternity, Paternity, Adoption and Shared Parental Leave Policies
- Unpaid parental leave
- Join EastMums Network - a support network for working mothers in the Institute
Further information on risk assessments can be found below:
UCL also offers support to pregnant students, more information can be found on the student page below:
During maternity or adoption leave you may work on a maximum of 10 days or half days without affecting your rights to statutory pay and up to 20 days during shared parental leave.
- EastMums Network - a support network for working mothers within the Eastman Dental Institute
- Parents and Carers Network, UCL - a social network that aims to support UCL staff members who are balancing ongoing caring responsibilities with work. It is a peer support group led by network members for members so new ideas and activities are always welcomed and encouraged.
- Staff Wellbeing - UCL work to support psychological wellbeing, by recognising the importance of practicing self-care, showing kindness and managing compassionately.
- Carefirst (Employee Assistance Programme) - Occasionally, you might experience a time when nothing seems to go your way, be it at work or at home. Here's where Care First can offer support. Whether you need information or have questions regarding issues such as stress, pregnancy, debt, landlords, neighbours or nutrition, Care First can provide the answers.
If you are taking any form of parental leave so they can review the existing risk assessment(s) for your work and consider any risks to your own health and safety, or that of your unborn child:
please inform hr-eastman@ucl.ac.uk.Shared Parental Leave
Shared Parental Leave is a new right that will enable eligible mothers, fathers, partners and adopters the flexibility to choose when to take leave following the birth or adoption of their child. It is possible for the parent/adopter to share some of the leave with their spouse, civil partner or partner; they might decide on a phased return, or even stagger the parental leave days over a longer period of time in order to resume leave at a later date. Partner is defined as someone (whether of a different sex or the same sex) who lives with you in an enduring family relationship (but who is not your child, parent, grandchild, grandparent, sibling, aunt, uncle, niece or nephew).
Paternity / Partners Leave
The partner of the mother or primary adoptive parent may take paid leave of up to 20 working days, pro rata for part time staff. This can be taken from 3 months before the expected week of childbirth or the date of adoption and up to 3 months thereafter. Paternity/Partner’s Leave and Pay (PL/P) need not be taken at one time; it can be spread over a 6-month period. There is no qualifying length of service for entitlement to PL/P but an employee cannot take PL once a period of shared PL has commenced.
Adoption Leave
The primary adoptive parent is entitled to the same provision in terms of service requirements, pay, amount of leave, return to work, etc. as per the UCL Maternity Leave arrangements. The partner of the primary adoptive parent is entitled to the same provisions as per UCL Paternity/Partner’s leave. Employees who are prospective primary adopters may take paid time off in order to attend up to five adoption meetings. Employees who are adopting a child with someone else who is the primary adopter, are entitled to take unpaid time off in order to attend up to two such meetings.
Flexible Working
Here at the Eastman, we fully support requests for flexible working. Please view the Flexible Working Policy for information about flexible working.
Sickness Absence
The department records all sickness absence (even part-days) through MyHR. If you are unwell and not fit to come to work, you must inform your line manager immediately and provide additional information such as anticipated length of absence and any important or urgent work that needs to be covered. Upon your return to the office, you must meet with your line manager to complete a sickness absence record form, which would then be returned to the HR Officer for processing.
Sabbatical Leave
In addition to the provisions of the UCL Parental Leave and Pay Policy, and to mark its commitment to gender equality in academic careers, research active academic employees returning from ML, AL or shared PL (where any of these individually or combined totals more than 3 months duration) are entitled to take one term of Sabbatical Leave, without teaching commitments, in accordance with the principles set out in the Sabbatical Leave Policy. This leave will enable staff more quickly to re-establish research activity.
Annual Leave
The annual leave year runs from 1 October until 30 September. Full-time staff are entitled to 27 days of annual leave and can request additional pay-deducted annual leave as required. In addition, there are other public and customarily holidays when UCL will be closed. These entitlements are pro-rata for part-time staff.
Other Family Friendly Policies
Other leave such as time off for caring responsibilities, medical appointments, bereavement leave etc. are covered under the leave for domestic and personal reasons.
