Supporting pregnancy and maternity rights

Cardiff Business School has pledged its commitment to a campaign that aims to improve the workplace for pregnant women and new mothers.

The Working Forward campaign is led by the Equality and Human Rights Exchange Network. It is a “coalition of employers” and a network to share best practice, knowledge and guidance. The aim is to deliver improved working practices and support for pregnant women and new mothers.

Professor Martin Kitchener, Dean of Cardiff Business School, said: “We are proud of our maternity policies, at a School and University level, but are committed to continuously improving our offering in support of pregnant women and new mothers. Signing up to the Working Forward campaign provides us with the opportunity to share best practice with, and learn from, peers within the network.

“Improving the working environment, and support, for pregnant women and new mothers is vital to ensure female colleagues are able to fulfil their professional ambitions and increase representation at senior executive level.”

As part of the pledge, the School has designated the following as areas where they will take action to develop the workplace environment for pregnant women and new mothers:

• Demonstrating leadership from the top down: ensuring that everyone in the School is aware of policies and commitments and embedding these as part of the culture.
• Ensuring confident employees: making staff aware of the pregnancy and maternity policies and empowering them to talk to line managers about issues and concerns.
• Training and supporting line managers: ensuring they feel able to talk to employees about pregnancy and maternity rights.
• Offering flexible working practices: think differently about flexible and agile working practices and how they can be further integrated into the School.

Vikki Burge, Cardiff Business School’s Equality and Diversity Officer, added: “Improving communication on this topic is important so that staff know what policies are in place, know how to access support when it is needed, and feel confident in approaching line managers to discuss concerns. We look forward to utilising the Working Forward campaign’s educational tools and resources to help us with this work.”

Cardiff Business School’s public value strategy aims to deliver economic and social improvement through interdisciplinary scholarship that addresses the grand challenges of our time including innovation, equality, and sustainability. Since the official launch of the strategy in late 2015, the School has been working hard to deliver public value in all of its activities whilst also becoming recognised as a thought leader and role model in higher education governance.