Developing a family friendly culture

Case study

School details

School name: Patcham High School

Location: Brighton

Phase: Secondary

Number of pupils: 1100

Background

Ruth Astley (now Assistant Headteacher) completed a dissertation project on the experience of women leaders and mothers working part-time. She has used her research to develop new policies and processes as part of a new Family Friendly strategy at her school. There are now a range of middle and senior leaders working flexibly. Teachers who might otherwise have left the school have chosen to stay as a result of better wellbeing and work/home balance. Some of the steps enacted at Patcham High School are set out below:

Keep key policies in an accessible shared area, and develop the resources available

We dedicated staff time to create a SharePoint site to save key policies (both at school and LA level). Staff can now access all the information in one place. They no longer need to request policies in person, potentially having to disclose their circumstances before they are ready to.

Some of the policies available on Patcham’s SharePoint site include:

Parental leave policies and application forms for teachers and wider school staff, including shared parental leave, adoption leave and premature baby leave;
Information on support for fertility treatment, miscarriage and baby loss; and
Flexible working policies and application forms.

We consult regularly with staff to identify gaps and further areas of need. After the initial launch, staff led on developing new resources about menopause and wellbeing.

Champion flexible and part-time working, including at senior levels

We have an advocate within the leadership team to lead the strategy.
We role model flexible working options and approve requests where possible. Patcham has a range of formal and informal patterns at all levels of responsibility, including part-time roles, job shares and enabling more informal flexibilities such as late starts/early finishes when timetabling allows this.
Job-share TLRs: If someone part-time has a TLR, we allow someone else to take on part-time responsibility for one or two days. Staff also benefit from the experience.
Recruitment: All external (and internal) adverts state that they are open to flexible working.

Proactively consult teachers before they go on maternity leave on their plans and preferences, and ensure a clear plan is in place for when they return

We ask those going on maternity how they would prefer to keep in touch. Some people want minimal communication, but others want to hear about things like promotion opportunities.

We discuss with them:

what kind of updates they want;
the method of communication; and
who they will hear from.

Keep in touch days can be used effectively by helping staff to

attend CPD or INSET days;
attend line manager or class check-ins;
get up to date with curriculum changes; or
create networking opportunities.

When staff first return, it can take a little while to adjust. We are understanding of this and offer regular check-ins. There are also practical considerations, such as whether they will need a private space to express breastmilk.

We actively offer all staff members (including those going on maternity leave) the opportunity, if they would like, to discuss flexible working. This ensures it is not only seen as something for returning mothers and contributes to a culture where flexible working is valued and open to everyone.