Work, Family and Flexible Working

Flexible working​

Flexible working can be arranged informally with your line manager, or more formally, which involves an amendment to your contract.

All members of staff have a right to request flexible working (part-time, working from home, etc.) provided they have worked for the employer for 26 weeks continuously and have not made another application during the past 12 months. The government recommends that requests to work part-time are made as soon as possible to allow the employer time to consider any possible issues arising. NDCN is not obliged to concede to your request but is obliged to present an argument to support the final decision.

The University support a number of flexible and home working initiatives. See in particular more information about the Nine Day Fortnight​. Please feel free to contact hr@ndcn.ox.ac.uk for a confidential discussion about your plans.

Returning to work after a period of family leave

After a period of parental leave, you may wish to explore with your line manager/PI and HR the possibility of working flexibly (part-time, compressed hours, working from home, etc). Flexible working is encouraged at all levels within NDCN to fit around family commitments.​

Returning to research

There are special issues surrounding career breaks for scientists - we can't simply arrange for someone to "cover" for us and we can quickly lose touch with rapidly changing fields. However, career breaks can also be an opportunity to pause for thought and maybe move your research in new directions.  

The Daphne Jackson Trust is a charity dedicated to returning talented scientists to careers after a break of two years of more. 

Parental Leave

Parental leave is a right to take time off work to look after a child or make arrangements for the child's welfare. Parents can use it to spend more time with children and strike a better balance between their work and family commitments. It might be used to:

• accompany a child during a stay in hospital
• check out new schools
• settle a child into new childcare arrangements
• enable the family to spend more time together (e.g. taking the child to stay with grandparents)

Parental leave is an individual right and cannot be transferred between parents.

Childcare provision

Nurseries

The University has four nurseries in Oxford and has subsidized places at other nurseries in and around Oxford.

The waiting list for university nurseries is very long. Everyone advises getting on the waiting list as soon as you or your partner gets pregnant. All applications are kept confidential; you can apply for a nursery place before you tell the Department of your or your partner's pregnancy. Childcare services offers information and contacts.

Due to the very long waiting list for University nurseries, we suggest that you have an alternative plan just in case you don't get a University nursery place when you want to return to work.

Other sources of information on childcare:

• Oxforshire County Council
• Oxford Montessori Schools

Childcare can be expensive; the University offers two schemes which help parents save tax and national insurance on their childcare costs:

• Salary Sacrifice Scheme
• Childcare Voucher Scheme, which can be used to pay for nursery fees, holiday play schemes, child minders, nannies, even supermarkets and swimming. Children must be aged under 16.

Schools

If you are interested in private schools you must contact them individually. There can be long waiting lists. A number of them have nurseries for children aged around three years.

School holidays

• Oxford Active
• Create Holiday Club Oxford Montessori Schools (Forest Farm)