Family friendly policies drive dramatic improvement in gender balance

Department of Surgery & Cancer - where 48% of surgical trainees are women - was the first academic department to join Mumsnet’s Family Friendly scheme

New statistics from the Department of Surgery and Cancer - which joined Mumsnet’s Family Friendly programme in June 2018 - reveal how effective its family-friendly policies have been when it comes to gender balance and keeping female staff after they have taken breaks to have children.

The Department specialises in surgical and oncological practice and research - areas in which, historically, working hours and practices have been far from family friendly. In 2013 the Department began a change in culture, building an environment that supports staff to work in a way that is professionally satisfying but also compatible with a healthy family life.

Now:

• 48% of surgical trainees doing research in the Department in 2018 are women, compared with 38% in 2014;
• the number of female scientists in the Department has doubled since 2013;
• maternity return rates are high, at 87% across all staff levels, and steadily increasing year-on-year;
• the Elsie Widdowson Fellowship, for academic staff returning to work following maternity, adoption and/or shared parental leave, has been awarded to 12 people since 2008, with four of them receiving it twice;
• since 2015, two women researchers have obtained Daphne Jackson Fellowships, allowing them to work part time over two to three years to update skills and have a phased return to their research; and
• 77% of staff - female and male - reported that their line managers are supportive of their requests for flexible working.* 

The Department promotes flexible working from the moment a job is advertised, and provides access to ‘My Family Care’, a service for emergency childcare and school holiday cover. They also have a clear maternity support pathway and offer fellowships designed to support female academic staff returning to work after leave. In addition they offer 52 weeks of maternity leave and shared parental leave to all staff, including those fostering or adopting. They also have highchairs, changing facilities and dedicated resting and nursing rooms on all campuses, and maternity and paternity mentoring buddy schemes.

Christopher Peters, Clinical Senior Lecturer and Surgeon, Department of Surgery and Cancer said: “We first heard on Radio 4’s Today programme that Mumsnet were assessing work places for family friendliness and were excited for them to cast their microscope on us. ‘People and culture’ is not just a phrase to us, it means placing staff and their family’s wellbeing at the centre of the decisions we make, ensuring our policies and procedures are flexible. We’re delighted that Mumsnet has recognised what we have achieved over many years to ensure our staff have the life they want at home and at work.”

Justine Roberts, Mumsnet Founder, said: “We’ve been talking about the benefits of family friendly approaches for years, but nothing beats the hard evidence that they work. It’s exciting to see the proof that these changes can have such impact - and in an area (top-flight medicine and research) that hasn’t traditionally engaged with this issue.”

Professor Clare Lloyd, Vice Dean (Institutional Affairs) Faculty of Medicine said: “I’m delighted that Mumsnet has recognised the tremendous work that Surgery and Cancer have done to address gender balance and overall culture in their Department, and I am confident that this reflects the efforts that are being made Faculty-wide.”

*Stats taken from Athena SWAN Silver application and 2017 Imperial College London Staff Survey