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include all the policies and forms for these planned absences, as well as contacts for the School's HR Partners for staff working in the School.

School Policy on Parental Leave (PDF, 0.2 MB)

I became pregnant with my second child in January 2014. During my pregnancy I met with a member of the HR team who answered all of my questions.

The University's research and enterprise services team supported me in applying to the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to pause my funding whilst I was on maternity leave.

I took all my keeping in touch (KIT) days during my maternity leave and have now returned to work part time. I was also promoted to Associate Professor whilst I was on maternity leave.

I am mentored by Professor Cathy Creswell, who has an extremely successful career as well as being a mother. It is such a great comfort and resource to be able to go to Cathy to discuss and work through the challenges of managing to have the time I want with my children and to achieve my goals at work.

I also have an annual performance development review to promote and support my desired career progression. Regarding my flexible working arrangements, I feel so fortunate to have managers that trust me to manage my own time and fulfil my role. This allows me to be flexible and support my family when I need to.

I became pregnant with our first child in autumn 2014, and after notifying my line manager I contacted HR. They provided great support, meeting with me to talk over the paperwork and my options for adding on annual leave and taking KIT days.

I also had excellent support from my colleagues. It was very helpful to speak with colleagues who had taken maternity leave and then transitioned back to work.

At the time of my leave the School was formalising its parental leave policy, which helped me to understand my options and how flexible I could make it. I took 10 months leave and returned to work in April 2016.

I chose to take KIT days in the run up to my return to full-time work, my line manager was fully supportive of every choice I made which made things straightforward.

On my return I had a reduced administrative workload. I am sure that this made my first full-time teaching term much more manageable, and meant that I had the time to submit a grant application and a case for promotion.