A Family Friendly University
Newcastle University is committed to supporting staff and students with parenting and caring responsibilities.
For Families is a three-year project. It's aimed at making the University more family-friendly for all staff and students. We're seeking to deliver:
- 'best-in-class' practices
- a supporting environment
This will enable our parents and carers to thrive. The work undertaken is in direct response to feedback from our staff and students.
It looks at high level issues such as organisational culture and childcare provision. It also looks at smaller, more detailed amendments to specific policies and practices.
Our achievements
During 2019 we were able to:
- remove the qualifying service period for all 'special leave' and parenting leave from 2020
- increase paid paternity leave from two weeks to four weeks
- roll out the Bringing Children into the Workplace policy
- improve flexibility and increase awareness of the Returners Support Programme
- offer support for finding suitable childcare, including in emergencies
- create one-stop-shop website for student and staff parents, with FAQs, checklists and staff/manager toolkits

Find out more about the project:
If you are a University colleague, you can find out more about the project on the pages below:
Contact us
You can email us to find out more about For Families.