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Athena SWAN Bronze and Silver Department award application

Name of institution: Newcastle University

Date of application: 26th April 2011

Department: Institute of Health & Society

Contact for application: Professor Judith Rankin

Email:[email protected] Telephone: 0191 222 5267

Departmental website address: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ihs

Date of university Bronze and/or Silver SWAN award: July 2009

Level of award applied for: Silver

Athena SWAN Bronze and Silver Department awards recognise that in addition to university-wide policies the department is working to promote gender equality and to address challenges particular to the discipline.

Not all institutions use the term ‘department’ and there are many equivalent academic groupings with different names, sizes and compositions. The definition of a ‘department’ for SWAN purposes can be found on the Athena SWAN website. If in doubt, contact the Athena SWAN Charter Coordinator well in advance to check eligibility.

It is essential that the contact person for the application is based in the department.

At the end of each section state the number of words used.

Click here for additional guidance on completing this template.

1. Letter of endorsement from the Head of Department – maximum 500 words

An accompanying letter of endorsement from the Head of Department should explain how the SWAN action plan and activities in the department contribute to the overall department strategy and academic mission.

The letter is an opportunity for the Head of Department to confirm their support for the application and to endorse and commend any women and

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SET activities that have made a significant contribution to the achievement of the departmental mission.

2. The self-assessment process – maximum 1000 words

Describe the Self-Assessment Process. This should include:

a) A description of the self assessment team: members’ roles (both within the department and as part of the team) and their experiences of work-life balance;

The Self-Assessment Team (SAT) consists of four women and two men representing various grades of academic, research and administrative staff drawn from the Institute of Health & Society (IHS) and the Human Resources team within Newcastle University (NU). The following list gives details of the SAT members:

Judith Rankin holds a personal chair in the IHS. Judith began her career at NU as a contract researcher. Over the course of 16 years she has progressed from research associate to professor. She has also had three periods of maternity leave. IHS’s supportive working environment has enabled Judith to balance her work and family commitments (see case study 1 for further details). Judith has coordinated the preparation of this submission.

Mark Pearce is a senior lecturer in IHS. Mark has taken two periods of paternity leave in 2006 and 2009 when his wife, a member of NU research staff, gave birth to their two sons. Mark leads an all female team and his role in the SAT has been to provide a male perspective to IHS equality and diversity activities which has been evidenced in this application.

Ben Heaven is a research assistant in IHS who joined on a short-term contract in 2002. He was encouraged to study for a PhD under staff regulations and was awarded this in 2009. He then successfully applied for a research associate post in IHS. Ben has taken two periods of paternity leave while studying for his PhD. As a SAT member, Ben has provided a perspective from someone working at the interface between student and staff within the Institute. Kat Jackson began her career with Newcastle University in 2007 as a research assistant. After working on a project for 18 months, she was encouraged to apply for a prestigious fellowship from the National Institute of Health Research which she was awarded in 2009. While waiting for the result of this application, Kat became pregnant and began a period of 12 months maternity leave. She was supported by IHS in the renegotiation of her contract with a later start date, to enable Kat to continue her full maternity leave and return to work on a part-time basis. Kat’s role in the SAT has been to provide a perspective of someone at the early stages of their research career.

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Gill Paczynski is the Institute manager. Gill has worked in NU for 20 years. She took up a part-time post in order to spend time with her young family. Two years after her appointment, Gill took a period of maternity leave and continued to work three days per week. When the opportunity arose to take on a more senior role, she was able to negotiate an increase in her hours but to maintain part-time working. She now works four long days but still has one day per week for family commitments. Gill is also the Equality Officer and Casework Coordinator the Newcastle branch of the University and Colleges Union. As Institute manager, Gill has the greatest experience and knowledge of IHS policies and procedures, insight which has proved invaluable to the SAT team and this submission.

Julie Bullimore works in the central Human Resources department at NU, successfully job-sharing with a colleague. As the University’s Equality and Diversity adviser, she is involved in all aspects of the University’s Equality and Diversity activities. As with most people who work part-time, Julie finds the pressures of fitting her duties into work time difficult but feels that her work-life balance is suitable for her current work and family responsibilities. Within the SAT, Julie has provided knowledge and advice on equality and diversity and has shared examples of best practice from working with the Russell Group Equality Forum.

Judith and Gill have taken the lead in preparing the application but all members of the SAT have provided their personal perspective on gender balance within IHS and contributed details of their experiences of work-life balance. All members have commented on all aspects of the submission. The SAT will continue to review how current policies on gender equality and diversity can be amended or improved and to assist in identifying further initiatives. Members of the SAT may attend the University’s SAT in order to promote the equality and diversity agenda where appropriate.

b) an account of the self assessment process: details of the self assessment team meetings, including any consultation with staff or individuals outside of the university, and how these have fed into the submission;

Judith and Julie are members of NU’s Athena SWAN team which was successful in gaining the bronze award in 2009. During these University meetings, IHS was identified as an Institute that had already developed practices to encourage and facilitate good work-life balance and as a potential candidate for a silver award. Discussions followed with the Institute director (Professor Eileen Kaner) and the Institute manager (Gill) during which full support was given. The Athena SWAN Scheme was introduced to the whole Institute at one of its regular staff meetings. There was a question and answer session; staff were invited to participate in preparing the submission; and to meet with any SAT member to comment on the process and to share their experiences of working in IHS. This information has been incorporated into this submission. Julie is a member of the Russell Group Equality Forum which shares examples of best practice and benchmarking and this experience has fed into the current submission. We have also consulted with Mrs

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Veryan Johnston, Executive Director of Human Resources at NU, Professor Vicki Bruce, member of the NU’s Athena SWAN team and members of the IHS Executive.

c) Plans for the future of the self assessment team, such as how often the team will continue to meet, any reporting mechanisms and in particular how the self assessment team intends to monitor implementation of the action plan.

The SAT will meet twice a year to monitor implementation of the action plan, as well as having regular email contact. The reporting mechanisms will be through the IHS Human Resources Group (HRG). The HRG feeds into the IHS Executive which is the Institute’s decision making body. The SAT will have a regular slot at the IHS staff meetings, which take place three times per year, so that information on Athena SWAN activities, including monitoring progress with implementing the action plan, and decisions made at the Executive in relation to gender, diversity and equality, can be communicated to the whole Institute.

Total words this section= 1000

3. A picture of the department – maximum 2000 words

a) Provide a pen-picture of the department to set the context for the application, outlining in particular any significant and relevant features.

The IHS was formed in 2006 when the School of Population & Health Sciences (formerly comprising the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, the Department of Primary Care and the Centre for Health Services Research) and research programmes in Child Health and Public Health Nutrition came together. IHS has grown rapidly and has experienced a number of changes in the past year including moving to a purpose built building, new ‘open’ plan working conditions, a new director and three senior members of staff moving on due to personal career advancement.

The IHS currently has 178 staff members across academic, research and clerical grades. There are 88 lecturers at grade F and G which are entry and more established lecturer subgrades. There are 15 staff at grade H which includes senior lecturers and readers and 16 at grade I which is the professorial level. The remaining 59 are support staff. IHS has always had more female than male staff although the ratio of women to men is now more balanced. Until 2010, there was a gender imbalance at senior level with more males in senior positions (grades H and I). However, four females were promoted to professor during 2009-10 and this has resulted in more parity at senior level.

The IHS has long benefited from an enlightened leadership which recognised that staff were entitled to security of employment, a satisfactory work-life balance and a recognition that a staff comprised mainly of young women was going to result in people requesting maternity/paternity leave, part-time working and time off for caring responsibilities. In an area that is dominated by short-term contracts, this was

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not an easy set of ideals to balance. A number of policies have been put in place to manage these issues:

1. After three years of employment, an employee could apply to be considered for a rolling contract. This system was developed to give staff more stability by ensuring that they always had 12 months of work ahead or, if this was not possible, 12 months to make other working arrangements while support via training was also provided. Objectives had to be met to apply for this contract and a budget was set aside to underwrite the salaries of those who were successful.

2. IHS reviewed how its finances were structured to enable the rolling contract system to operate but also to provide for maternity/paternity leave.

3. A Staff Development and Review System was instigated; this was a number of years before a Performance Development and Review System (PDR) was introduced throughout Newcastle University. This allowed staff to take control of their careers and enabled experienced staff to provide guidance and mentoring. It also ensured information about maternity/paternity and other forms of leave which support the working lives of staff were disseminated and implemented. The IHS bore the costs of all these types of leave, which applied equally to all staff grades, when other forms of funding were not available.

The introduction of the Concordat for Contract Research Staff in 1996 supported many of these activities and the Faculty took over the funding of some maternity and paternity leave costs from the then Centre for Health Services Research in response to this. The introduction of the Fixed-term Employees [Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment] Regulations 2002, which prohibits the continuous use of short-term contracts over several years, also led the University to introduce ‘open’ contracts taking away the need for rolling contracts. IHS was ahead of its time in seeking solutions to these sorts of problems and continues to work hard to ensure continuity of funding through offering bridging funds and career support and implementing the 2008 Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers.

Return to work after maternity leave is high with most staff returning often to an agreed amended contract with reduced hours to enable them to balance work and home life. All of this is actively supported by the IHS.

The IHS Human Resources Group (HRG) takes responsibility for ensuring that all University and Institute human resource policies are followed and makes and considers suggestions for changes from other Institute groups. The HRG is also responsible for administering fixed term contracts and ensuring the continuation of contracts of employment by trying to marry those who are within six months of contract end with vacancies. The HRG feeds into the IHS Executive. The minutes from both these groups are posted on the IHS intranet, which all staff have access to, to ensure key decisions are communicated openly to all staff.

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The IHS combines a supporting working environment with an open and inclusive culture. From her appointment in 2010, the IHS director (Professor Eileen Kaner) has encouraged staff to meet with her to discuss any issue that may be affecting their working life. She regularly circulates a director’s newsletter to all staff; she uses this forum to celebrate individual and team achievements and to disseminate the current views of the University management to keep staff abreast of some of the challenges currently facing those working in higher education.

b) Provide data for the past three years (where possible with clearly labelled graphical illustrations) on the following with commentary on their significance and how they have affected action planning.

Student data

(i) Numbers of males and females on access or foundation courses – comment on the data and describe any initiatives taken to attract women to the courses.

The Faculty of Medical Sciences at Newcastle University does not provide access or foundation courses.

(ii) Undergraduate male and female numbers – full and part-time – comment on the female:male ratio compared with the national picture for the discipline. Describe any initiatives taken to address any imbalance and the impact to date. Comment upon any plans for the future.

Undergraduate student numbers are restricted by government quota for Medical and Dental subjects. With the exception of the Accelerated Programme, female numbers exceed male in all parts of the Medicine and Surgery honours degree (MBBS). Staff from all Institutes/Schools within Newcastle University contribute teaching on the MBBS, including IHS staff. Both MBBS programmes receive more applications from females than males as can be seen in the graphs below.

55% of MBBS new entrants in 2010/11 were female. The picture is the same nationally with 56% of accepted applications to all UK medical schools being from females. The British Medical Association Equal Opportunities Committee suggests that the proportion of applications from females may have stabilised since its peak in 2004.

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2008 Applications

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2009 Applications

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2010 Applications

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MBBS Accelerated Programme 2008-10

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Applications 2008

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MBBS 2008-10

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(iii) Postgraduate male and female numbers completing taught courses – full and part-time – comment on the female:male ratio compared with the national picture for the discipline. Describe any initiatives taken to address any imbalance and the effect to date. Comment upon any plans for the future.

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The IHS offers a Masters in Public Health and Health Services Research. The numbers studying part-time are small. Overall, there were more females than males on the course in 2008 but there was a more balanced gender split in 2009 and 2010. Nationally, according to Unistats (Context 2009), there is an imbalance between male and female students for Public Health and Health Services Research within the sector, with more females than males completing taught courses.

All selection is based on merit and there is no action planned to change the application process at this time. Whilst the IHS records the gender balance on those accepted onto the MSc course, we do not monitor gender balance in applications to the MSc. This has been added as an action point (see point 1.1 in action plan).

MSc Public Health & Health Services Research –part-time 2008 2009 2010

Male Female Male Female MaleFemale

Total acceptances 3 2 2 0 1 0

MSc Public Health & Health Services Research –full-time 2008 2009 2010

Male Female Male Female MaleFemale

Total acceptances 13 19 14 18 10 12

(iv) Postgraduate male and female numbers on research degrees – full and part-time – comment on the female:male ratio compared with the national picture for the discipline. Describe any initiatives taken to address any imbalance and the effect to date. Comment upon any plans for the future.

The graph below shows the number of applications to study for a PhD in IHS and the number of successful applications by gender for 2008-10. More females have been accepted onto PhDs than men. For the type of work undertaken in IHS, this gender imbalance is expected and reflects what is occurring nationally in the subject area (see section 3 (iii) above). There are no action points in relation to this.

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2008 Applications

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2010 Applications

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PhD applications 2008-10

MaleFemale

(v) Ratio of course applications to offers and acceptances by gender for undergraduate, postgraduate taught and postgraduate research degrees – comment on the differences between male and female application and success rates and describe any initiatives taken to address any imbalance and their effect to date. Comment upon any plans for the future.

The number of students specifically aligned to IHS on both postgraduate taught and research degrees is small. Although there is a gender imbalance for males, this largely reflects the fact that the type of research done in IHS is more attractive to women (see section 3 (viii)). Whilst the IHS is confident that its selection procedures follow all equality guidelines, we were not able to access information on offers. Thus, the monitoring of applications and success rates by gender could be improved and we will explore with the University whether there is any way of capturing this information (see action point 1.2 in the action plan).

(vi) Degree classification by gender – comment on any differences in degree attainment between males and females and describe what actions are being taken to address any imbalance.

The MBBS, which is the primary degree the IHS contributes to, and postgraduate degrees are not classified so this information is not available to the SAT.

Staff data

(vii) Female:male ratio of academic staff and research staff – researcher, lecturer, senior lecturer, reader, professor (or equivalent).

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comment on any differences in numbers between males and females and say what action is being taken to address any underrepresentation at particular grades/levels

As described in section 3a, the IHS currently has 119 staff members across academic and research grades. The graph below shows the breakdown by gender and year.

The IHS employees by grade and gender, 2008-10

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The IHS is very successful in attracting and recruiting women into academic and research roles. The Institute employs more women than men and women are represented at all grades. At lecturer F the ratio of men to women has gone from 1:3 in 2008 to 1:6 in 2010. There has been a slight increase in both men and women employed at lecturer G over the last three years.

There has been an increase in part-time posts at lecturer G making it easier for women to apply - all the part-time posts are filled by women. The numbers of men and women at senior lecturer and reader level are small, again with more females than males.

All chair promotions over the past three years have been to women. Thus positions at the highest level now more fairly reflect the composition of the IHS workforce as a whole.

Academic Staff Turnover

(viii) Turnover by grade and gender – comment on any differences between men and women in turnover and say what is being done to address this. Where the number of staff leaving is small, comment on the reasons why particular individuals left.

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A total of 238 women and 83 men were appointed between 2008 and 2010. During the same time period, 24 women and seven men left. Eleven women left at the end of fixed-term contracts, six moved to take up a promotion, two returned to their career posts after working and studying in the Institute for a period of time, one re-located for career and family reasons, one left to complete her PhD, one retired, one left after maternity leave and one left for work/life balance reasons. Of the men who left, one was head-hunted by another university to lead a new research programme, three left to take up promotion, two to return to their career posts after studying and working in the Institute for a period of time and one re-located abroad.

78% of leavers from the IHS in the last three years were women although in real terms this is still a small number (24). This compares to 74% of the overall staff being women. The highest turnover is within lecturer grade F; this group are more likely to be affected by the ending of a fixed-term contract. The reason for people on this grade leaving varies from wanting to travel, to returning to their home country, to taking up a post in another university (further detailed above). Although many staff at this grade are initially appointed on short-term contracts, the IHS has an internal redeployment policy which means that people are generally leaving of their own accord and for positive reasons. However, in an attempt to collect more information on why staff are leaving, we plan to carry out exit interviews with members of staff before they leave; this has been added as an action point (see action point 1.3 in the action plan).

Staff Employed Leavers Turnover

2008

Grade Male Female Male Female Male FemaleLecturer F 9 31 1 1 11% 3%Lecturer G 4 13 0 1 0% 8%Senior Lecturer/Reader 4 6 2 1 50% 17%Professor 7 7 0 0 0% 0%

2009


2010


Total word count = 1779

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Supporting and advancing women’s careers – maximum 5000 words

4. Key career transition points

a) Provide data for the past three years (where possible with clearly labelled graphical illustrations) on the following with commentary on their significance and how they have affected action planning.

(i) Job application and success rates by gender and grade – comment on any differences in recruitment between men and women at any level and say what action is being taken to address this.

There is a clear difference by gender in the applications for academic and research positions. For grade F, 62% of applicants are women. More men than women apply for positions in grades G, H and I.

Grade F Grade G Grade H Grade I 0

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IHS Applications for Academic and Research positions by grade and gender 2008-10

MaleFemale

Applications and offers made for academic and research positions by grade and year are shown in the table below.

Applications Offers Offers as % of applications2008 2009 2010 2008 2009 2010 2008 2009 2010

Female 154 200 122 8 15 19 5% 8% 16%Male 118 94 112 0 8 3 0% 9% 3%Total 272 294 234 8 23 22 3% 8% 9%

For all academic and research positions available over the last three years, women have increased the proportion of offers received as a percentage of applications

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made. The data show that the IHS is successful at attracting and recruiting women into science.

The picture is more variable for men across the same time period. We are unable to access data by grade relating to offers and acceptances and this has been added as an action point (see action point 3.1 in the action plan).

(ii) Applications for promotion and success rates by gender and grade – comment on whether these differ for men and women and if they do explain what action may be taken. Where the number of women is small applicants may comment on specific examples of where women have been through the promotion process. Explain how potential candidates are identified.

Since 2009, all applications for promotion have gone through a University process. Prior to that, research promotions were considered by the Newcastle University Dean of Research. Identification of those eligible for promotion is done through the Performance and Development Review (PDR) process and review by the IHS director. The number of promotions to Chairs and Senior Lecturer positions has been small over the last three years with a balance of applications from women and men. All of the applications from women were successful.

Year Outcome Position Female Male Total

2008Successful Chair 1 1

Senior Lecturer 1 1 2Unsuccessful 1 1

2009 SuccessfulChair 2 1 3Senior Lecturer 1 1Lecturer G 1 1

Unsuccessful

2010 Successful Chair 1 1Senior Lecturer 1

Unsuccessful 1 1Total 6 6 11

Promotion for researchers more often comes via the recruitment process rather than through the University promotions procedure. Research staff have been successful in developing their careers while performing specific tasks for a research project. During the last three years, one female member of staff was promoted from research assistant to research associate; two staff from research associate to senior research associate (one male, one female); and one male from senior research associate to principle research associate.

The IHS strategic plan is shared with all staff and recently has been specifically included in the discussion topics for the PDR interviews so that all academic staff are

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aware of the criteria needed for promotion at each grade. By doing this, we hope that more staff will consider applying for promotion.

b) For each of the areas below, explain what the key issues are in the department, what steps have been taken to address any imbalances, what success/impact has been achieved so far and what additional steps may be needed.

(i) Recruitment of staff – comment on how the department’s recruitment processes ensure that female candidates are attracted to apply, and how the department ensures its short listing, selection processes and criteria comply with the university’s equal opportunities policies.

Newcastle University recruitment process adheres to all equal opportunity legislation. The IHS follows these policies and procedures. All posts are advertised internally for a period of seven days and externally for 3-4 weeks. IHS notifies short-listed candidates of interview dates in good time. The letter of invitation for interview specifically asks about any special arrangements needed to enable an applicant to attend. Interviews are held within normal working hours and posts are advertised as being flexible with regard to working hours where possible.

(ii) Support for staff at key career transition points – having identified key areas of attrition of female staff in the department, comment on any interventions, programmes and activities that support women at the crucial stages, such as personal development training, opportunities for networking, mentoring programmes and leadership training. Identify which have been found to work best at the different career stages.

There are no particular areas of attrition in the IHS (as shown in section 3 viii) and turnover is relatively small. The IHS policy on staff training is that 10% of working time should be spent on personal development and training. There is a specific training question in the Performance and Development Review (PDR) asking about training needs and identified gaps are followed up after the PDR meeting by the person identified on the PDR form.

The IHS initiated and designed a training course for Principal Investigators which has been adopted by the Faculty of Medical Sciences (FMS) as a beacon of best practice. IHS was chosen by the FMS to pilot its mentoring programme and a number of staff have now had the opportunity to be trained as mentors. These two examples illustrate the supportive culture that the IHS adopts. Both schemes have proved successful among all staff grades. However, females entering senior positions have identified the need for leadership training. Whilst the IHS supports staff members to attend external courses e.g. NHS Public Health Leadership course, we are currently scoping the possibility of designing and running a leadership training course internally and this has been added as an action point (see action point 3.2 in the action plan). It is expected that this training will identify particular issues that have arisen in the IHS for senior managers. It will address general management problems and highlight University policies and procedures. In some instances, this may lead to

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one-to-one coaching sessions with some managers. Similar training will then be rolled out to others in response to requests from relatively recently appointed senior lecturers for management training. As part of a cascade of training we will then look at the training requirements of more junior staff, specifically training on grant writing and other practical aspects of developing an academic career but also an introduction to management.

5. Career development

a) For each of the areas below, explain what the key issues are in the department, what steps have been taken to address any imbalances, what success/impact has been achieved so far and what additional steps may be needed.

(i) Promotion and career development – comment on the appraisal and career development process, and promotion criteria and whether these take into consideration responsibilities for teaching, research, administration, pastoral work and outreach work; is quality of work emphasised over quantity of work?

All the IHS staff are encouraged to attend the University workshops on Performance and Development Review (PDR) so that all involved can get the best out of the meeting. Guidelines on the PDR process are held in the IHS’s shared folder which is available to all staff and any changes to procedure or timelines are circulated in a timely fashion. Discussion about applying for promotion is now an integral part of the PDR process and all academic and other activities are taken equally into account when promotion is being considered. Part-time staff are offered the same opportunities as full-time staff including enhancing their CV through teaching experience, committee membership and supervision of MSc and PhD students.

The IHS strategic plan is shared with all staff; academic staff are aware of the criteria including academic achievements expected at the different levels before proceeding to an application for promotion. Quality is recognised over quantity with encouragement to apply for prestigious research funding and to submit to peer-reviewed journals paramount; support and training is given to build confidence in these activities including internal peer-review of bids and opportunities to present papers to a wide range of staff along with other training activities. PDR completion rates are reviewed annually to ensure all staff are being appraised.

It is recognised that female members of staff may wait longer to apply for promotion than their male counterparts. There appears to be a perception among younger female members of the IHS staff that a period of maternity leave has to be ‘made up’ before they can compete on equal terms with men. We are addressing this perception through the PDR process to emphasise that promotion is based on merit not length of time in post. The IHS director signs off all PDR forms; this is an opportunity for the director to identify those who are approaching a stage where they should be considering promotion. From 2011, the IHS director will have a

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discussion on promotion with any member of staff she feels should be considering it (see action point 4.1 in the action plan).

The Newcastle University Faculty of Medical Sciences runs annual promotion seminars; the IHS staff are encouraged to attend these before completing their promotion documents. Support is also given internally to research staff with sample documents and review of papers by senior members of staff prior to submission. The IHS director provides feedback to unsuccessful candidates.

(ii) Induction and training – describe the support provided to new staff at all levels, as well as details of any gender equality training. To what extent are good employment practices in the institution, such as opportunities for networking, the flexible working policy, and professional and personal development opportunities promoted to staff from the outset?

The IHS has a ‘buddy’ system for all new staff; this is someone usually of equivalent grade who has been working in the IHS for some time. The ‘buddy’ is assigned for two weeks during which they introduce new staff members to key staff at all grades including the Institute director, as well as showing them around the University e.g. where the library is located, where other parts of the Institute are based, where other key buildings are including University and Faculty administration offices and taking them to the coffee/lunch area to provide further opportunity for networking. Although formally this relationship only lasts a short period, it generally leads to an on-going friendship which means that people always have somebody to go to with a query in the early days. In addition the new staff member is introduced to key people in the building for obtaining information and advice about health & safety, university policies on sickness absence, holiday entitlement, dignity at work etc.

This ‘buddy’ system is also offered to all new PhD students. However, we propose to offer a longer period of this informal support to overseas postgraduate students if they feel this would be useful (see action point 2.1 of the action plan).

There is a Newcastle University Women’s network (NU-Women) (http://www.ncl.ac.uk/diversity/info/gender/nuwomen/) which is open to all women in the University. This network arranges various activities for women from inviting inspirational women to speak to the group to discussions on career development using expertise with the University. There is also a Carer’s network, a more informal group, which meets to discuss issues relating to caring for dependents. We endeavour to ensure that all staff are aware of these networks, a more formal means of increasing awareness by presenting on the networks at the IHS staff meetings has been added as an action point (see action point 5.2 in the action plan).

Diversity training is provided by the University’s Staff Development Unit. There is also a Diversity webpage (http://www.ncl.ac.uk/diversity/) and a Diversity Consultative Group which can be contacted.The IHS policy on staff training is that 10% of working time should be spent on personal development and training; this applies to all staff. There is a specific

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http://www.ncl.ac.uk/diversity/

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/diversity/info/gender/nuwomen/

training question in the PDR asking about training needs and gaps identified are followed up after the PDR meeting by the appropriate person identified on the form. All staff are encouraged to attend open meetings and seminars. Questions about flexible working etc are often asked and answered as part of the recruitment process. The IHS tries to accommodate such requests whilst being mindful of the requirements of the work being undertaken.

(iii) Support for female students – describe the support (formal and informal) provided for female students to enable them to make the transition to a sustainable academic career, particularly from postgraduate to researcher, such as mentoring, seminars and pastoral support and the right to request a female personal tutor. Comment on whether these activities are run by female staff and how this work is formally recognised by the department.

All students in the IHS are encouraged to take advantage of anything on offer to staff and wherever possible are treated the same. There have been a number of staff who have become PhD students either part-time or full-time by obtaining specific PhD fellowship funding or as part of their ongoing work, with a considerable amount of support from the IHS. This means that they can study full-time within a supportive and vibrant environment and yet feel part of the larger group of students. These staff generally return to a research role once their studies are complete. Opportunities for other PhD students may also arise if suitable project work becomes available on attaining their PhD. We have had two recent examples, where an IHS PhD student (Fiona Young) and a member of IHS staff (Ben Heaven), have both been successful in attaining a research associate post within the IHS after completion of their PhD. We are currently providing support to a female member of the IHS support staff to undertake a Masters in Business Administration at Northumbria University, illustrating that we are committed to supporting all staff.

All IHS staff members are aware of the possibilities of applying for awards such as NIHR fellowships and have excellent examples of people who have gone from researcher to professor within the IHS.

All new staff are ‘buddied’ (see section 5(ii)) and are invited to attend all Institute discussion forums and seminars. The IHS was chosen by the Faculty of Medical Sciences to pilot its mentoring programme and a number of IHS staff have now had the opportunity to be trained as mentors. Any staff member can request a mentor and the Institute manager is responsible for marrying the mentee with a suitable mentor in a timely fashion.

6. Organisation and culture


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(i) Male and female representation on committees – provide a breakdown by committee and explain any differences between male and female representation. Explain how potential members are identified.

There is a NU policy on appointing staff to committees (see section 6 b (i) below). Committee representation within the IHS is wide and varied since staff are encouraged to sit on committees both within and outside the University. Within the Institute the IHS Executive is selected from the most senior members of staff each of whom has a specific area of responsibility. For other groups representatives might be selected with a view to enhancing their CV with an eye on promotion prospects. This is regardless of gender. The University asks for volunteers to sit on various committees and names are submitted by the IHS director. The choice of people on these committees will be governed by the need for a spread of representatives across University Faculties and will take into account gender balance. The IHS is often asked for representatives to sit on University Working groups. People will be chosen for these either based on their specific knowledge or interest or for career development purposes. When the Institute’s academics were surveyed on this question for this submission, over 50 committees were mentioned. A sample of the committees and a breakdown of their membership is shown below illustrating the breadth of committees that IHS staff at all grades contribute to.

Examples of committee membership

Committee Total membership

No. of males

No. of females

Institute:IHS Executive 9 3 6

Faculty of Medical Sciences:Ethics CommitteeGraduate School Committee

3228

1313

1915

Newcastle University:Wellbeing Group 6 3 3

External:Department of Health Public Health Research ConsortiumNorth East Quality Observatory Technical Group

5

16

2

10

3

6

(ii) Female:male ratio of academic and research staff on fixed-term contracts and open-ended (permanent) contracts – comment on any differences between male and female staff representation on fixed-term contracts and say what is being done to address them.

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The IHS is committed to transferring all employees onto open-ended contracts where possible. The IHS is able to do this by pooling income acquired though non-research work and recovered from full economic costing and overheads. This cooperative approach to budgeting is unusual at NU. This enables the IHS to provide support beyond the funding period when necessary to complete the writing of papers for publication, essential for any researcher’s career development. Open-ended contracts show a commitment from the Institute to keeping people in work and reduces the stress caused by fixed-term contracts. The IHS is working towards offering fewer fixed-term contracts and has appointed people directly on to open-ended contracts when it is highly likely that funds will continue on a regular basis or to attract people to apply for hard to fill posts.

The graph below shows that the number of women on open-ended contracts has increased over the last three years and the IHS plans to continue this trend.

2008 2009 20100

10

20

30

40

50

60

IHS Employees by Contract Type and Gender 2008-10

Fixed Term Contracts FemaleFixed Term Contracts MaleOpen Ended Contracts FemaleOpen Ended Contracts Male


(i) Representation on decision-making committees – comment on evidence of gender equality in the mechanism for selecting representatives. What evidence is there that women are encouraged to sit on a range of influential committees inside and outside the

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department? How is the issue of ‘committee overload’ addressed where there are small numbers of female staff?

Committee membership at University level is governed by Newcastle University policy:(http://www.ncl.ac.uk/executive/assets/documents/DiversityProfileCommitteesMay2010.pdf) on appointing staff onto committees. Membership of committees is discussed at the PDR and if any member of staff was experiencing ‘committee overload’, this is when it could be discussed and acted upon. As the IHS has a large number of female staff, there is always a pool of female staff to draw upon if female representatives are required and therefore ‘committee overload’ has not been a problem and there are no actions points in relation to this.

(ii) Workload model – describe the systems in place to ensure that workload allocations, including pastoral and administrative responsibilities (including the responsibility for work on women and science) are taken into account at appraisal and in promotion criteria. Comment on the rotation of responsibilities e.g. responsibilities with a heavy workload and those that are seen as good for an individual’s career.

The Faculty of Medical Sciences at Newcastle University uses a Faculty-wide Workload Planning Model. Pastoral and administrative responsibilities come under the ‘other administrative duties’ agreed with the Institute director and are recognised as ongoing agreed activities. Workload and responsibilities are discussed as part of the PDR process. In the spirit of openness and transparency, the IHS is currently seeking views from academic staff about making workload plans available within the organisation so that everybody sees the spread and type of workload across the IHS. Representation on committees is reviewed by the IHS director on a regular basis in order to give people experience on different bodies and enhance career development.

(iii) Timing of departmental meetings and social gatherings – provide evidence of consideration for those with family responsibilities, for example what the department considers to be core hours and whether there is a more flexible system in place.

The IHS have regular discussion forum meetings where less established research and academic staff are encouraged to present their work. These are held at lunchtime to ensure all staff have the opportunity to attend. The external seminar programme similarly is held within normal working hours and, if held in the afternoon, ends by 5pm to allow staff with childcare responsibilities to leave in good time. Institute meetings are held on a Wednesday as we have found this to be the day on which most part-time staff work. We do not hold meetings before 9am as we recognise that not all staff would be able to attend.

(iv) Culture –demonstrate how the department is female-friendly and inclusive. ‘Culture’ refers to the language, behaviours and other

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informal interactions that characterise the atmosphere of the department, and includes all staff and students.

As the Institute with the highest maternity returns in the Faculty, we positively encourage celebrating good news e.g. births and achievements. We have a central area where staff can have coffee/lunch which allows for informal networking. Coffee and lunch breaks are positively encouraged and we regularly support charity initiatives. We host a lunch for all new MSc students to meet IHS staff. The Christmas party, to which all staff are invited, starts at lunchtime so that staff with childcare responsibilities can attend and still meet these. Due regard is given to language used and respect is shown to people from different cultures including identifying a place to pray for Muslim members of staff. Any untoward behaviour would be dealt with under the University’s Dignity at Work policy which all staff are aware of. We have a Dignity at Work volunteer based in the IHS and the Institute manager has received specific training and presented on the policy at other staff meetings.

(v) Outreach activities – comment on the level of participation by female and male staff in outreach activities with schools and colleges and other centres. Describe who the programmes are aimed at, and how this activity is formally recognised as part of the workload model and in appraisal and promotion processes.

Newcastle University is a member of the Widening Participation programme which aims to raise aspirations and widen participation in higher education and the IHS is a partner in this initiative. The IHS staff have been involved in the ‘mini medical schools’ initiative which takes University medical research to school children interested in applying to medical school through interactive presentations.

7. Flexibility and managing career breaks


(i) Maternity return rate – comment on whether maternity return rate in the department has improved or deteriorated and any plans for further improvement. If the department is unable to provide a maternity return rate, please explain why?

The IHS has considerable experience of staff taking maternity leave having had 14 in the last three years. Of these, one chose not to return to work which gives a return to work rate of 78.6%. This is a higher return rate than the Faculty of Medical Sciences where 72% of maternity leavers come back to work. Women from all grades have taken maternity leave and a number of senior academics have had several periods of maternity leave. The one member of staff (grade F) who did not return to work after taking maternity leave, experienced a period of ill health after her baby was born and decided to move to the area of the country where most of her family

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were based. We also offer a phased return to work to aid in the transition back to work.

(ii) Paternity, adoption and parental leave uptake – comment on the uptake of paternity leave by grade and parental and adoption leave by gender and grade. Has this improved or deteriorated and what plans are there to improve further?

Paternity leave is offered to all new dads. Two male members of staff (one senior lecturer and one research associate) have taken paternity leave over the past three years. One female member of staff has taken parental leave on two occasions to cover school holidays. This part-time member of staff commented that the IHS’ flexibility over working hours has considerably reduced her stress levels at times e.g. when children are ill.

No requests for adoption leave have been received but this is available to all staff. Information on policies is readily available on the IHS intranet. However, we plan to introduce a better data collection system for this type of leave (see action point 5.1 in the Action plan).

(iii) Numbers of applications and success rates for flexible working by gender and grade – comment on any disparities. Where the number of women in the department is small applicants may wish to comment on specific examples.

Flexible working is available to all IHS staff in agreement with the Institute director. Three part-time members of staff (senior lecturers) currently work flexibly by working extra hours during term time so they can spend more time with their children in the school holidays. Others (research associates) have altered their working patterns to work longer days so as to be able to spend more time with their children or to pick them up from school on certain days and others have phased their return to work after maternity leave by returning part-time (lecturer) and gradually reverting back to full-time working. There is a new initiative, the Workwise Project, which will be launched soon by the University to promote new ways of working flexibly and the Institute will be enthusiastic in supporting this.


(i) Flexible working – comment on the numbers of staff working flexibly and their grades and gender, whether there is a formal or informal system, the support and training provided for managers in promoting and managing flexible working arrangements, and how the department raises awareness of the options available.

Academic staff of all grades and both genders are able to work flexibly with regard to hours of working. There is provision for working from home for some part of the

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week. The Institute management believe, however, that there is a need for academics to spend time in the office for their own development, to facilitate research collaboration, to ensure that the full range of academic duties are covered and shared as fairly as possible between all staff. As the Institute has a large number of support staff who are unable to work as flexibly, it is important for their morale that they see the academics on a regular basis so that the team cohesiveness and common purpose of the Institute are maintained. Discussion about flexible working often forms part of the recruitment process and the IHS tries to meet requests for flexibility where it can. We have been able to support a staff member who wanted to work part-time when appointed to a full-time post (see case study 2 for further details).

(ii) Cover for maternity and adoption leave and support on return – explain what the department does, beyond the university maternity policy package, to support female staff before they go on maternity leave, arrangements for covering work during absence, and to help them achieve a suitable work-life balance on their return.

As part of its normal human resource management practice, the IHS seeks to cover maternity leave by using existing members of staff wherever possible. Due to the nature of short-term funded contracts, we often have researchers coming to the end of other projects who can step in to cover. Research funders are sympathetic to suspending projects in some instances and in these cases work will temporarily cease until the staff member returns to work. This is useful in that the individual is clear about what she will be working on her return and retains ’ownership’ of the project. Arrangements for flexible, part-time and home working as described in section 7 (bi) are on offer.

However, as an Institute we recognise that there is some work required on providing some more pastoral support to people returning from maternity leave. Whilst our maternity return rates are high, comments to the SAT suggest that some people feel overwhelmed on their return and find work and motherhood difficult to cope with, especially for first time parents. We will address this issue in our action plan by offering a buddy system for those returning from maternity leave (see action point 3.3 in the action plan) and the Institute manager will organise a meeting between the maternity leave returner and their line manager to manage work expectations (see action point 3.4 in the action plan).


8. Any other comments – maximum 500 words

Please comment here on any other elements which are relevant to the application, e.g. other SET-specific initiatives of special interest that have not been covered in the previous sections. Include any other relevant data (e.g. results from staff surveys), provide a commentary on it and indicate how it is planned to address any gender disparities identified.

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The recent staff survey conducted bi-annually by Newcastle University highlighted that 98% of the IHS staff viewed the University as a good place to work with effective management structures in place. In particular, the IHS was considered good in the areas of health, safety and wellbeing, treating people equally, clarity of role and responsibility, satisfaction at work, feeling valued, training and development, work life balance and communication/information.

However, one issue was raised by a staff member around dignity at work. Since then we have had a presentation on this at the IHS staff meeting with signposting to Newcastle University’s dignity at work policy and a dignity at work volunteer has been appointed, with full support from the IHS director. This role can involve time during the working week to speak with individuals. Internal mediation, facilitated by the Institute manager, has been offered when requested; on two occasions this has been taken up and proved very successful.

The SAT considers the IHS has led the way in a number of gender and diversity issues and strives to provide a supportive working environment for all staff members with policies and procedures that adhere to current good practice. However, just as importantly, the IHS senior management tries to respond, in a timely fashion, to particular challenges, as illustrated above in the dignity at work example.


9. Action plan

Provide an action plan as an appendix. An action plan template is available on the Athena SWAN website.

The Action Plan should be a table or a spreadsheet comprising actions to address the priorities identified by the analysis of relevant data presented in this application, success/outcome measures, the post holder responsible for each action and a timeline for completion. The Plan should cover current initiatives and your aspirations for the next three years.

The action plan does not need to cover all areas at Bronze; however the expectation is that the department will have the organisational structure to move forward, including collecting the necessary data.

For Silver Department awards only

10.Case study: impacting on individuals – maximum 1000 words

Describe how the department’s SWAN activities have benefitted two individuals working in the department. One of these case studies should be a member of the self assessment team, the other someone else in the department. More information on case studies is available in the guidance.

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athena swan silver award · web viewihs employees by grade and gender, 2008-10 staff employed males...

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