ID027 Supporting New Parents at Keele

The Idea

People are at the heart of an institutional strategy, whether that be students or staff. Putting an EDI focus on the development of the new strategy is key and we want to propose that policy and support for expectant and new parents at Keele is given key consideration and reflects the needs of the workforce, with a view of a second phase looking at wider support for parents during the full parenting life cycle. This includes students as parents, colleagues across all job families and routes, as well as all genders. This is about joining up our approach to parenting and offering key support as well as considering where nuances in approach and policy would be beneficial to students and colleagues and therefore the University. 

The transition to parenting is well documented in research noting a time of changing identities and a reconsideration of priorities. It is a time that is accompanied with significant changes including personal, physical and financial and impacts on places of study and work. Whilst some provision is already in place to support parents (e.g. maternity leave, paternity leave, shared parental leave, adoption leave, KIT days, etc,) there are gaps in support as to what is needed for new parents on their return to work and study. 

In recent years, more emphasis has been placed on different measures to support parents and there are a number of different coaching and mentoring programmes in place in different organisations. For example, the ‘# FindyourMumentum’ programme at the Open University that provides resources for new mothers/primary caregivers as well as employers as well as the newly established ‘Growth Spurt UK’” which focuses on supporting new parents back to work. The recent report on ‘Supporting women’s health at work’ (Abrams et al, 2026) noted that women reported some of the most significant challenges in their workplace were related to pregnancy and returning to work after parental leave.  

At Keele, we already have some different places for support for new parents, including KIT days, Maternity, Paternity and Shared Parental Leave, we also have some localised additional support, e.g. maternity and parenting transition coaching, parenting lunches, etc. We would like to propose joining up our approach to parenting and offering key support as well as considering where nuances in approach would be beneficial. This would include more information on the transition to parenthood (for all parents) and opportunities for parents to come together in both a social but also supportive space to discuss some of the key issues. We propose that some of these sessions have a clear named focus with an expert speaker. 

In summary, this initiative would strengthen the University’s commitment to EDI and the approach to supporting new parents in the workplace in a consistent manner regardless of job family, staff, student and gender.  

Why This Idea Should Be Considered

Many people across Keele, both staff and students, will be in the process of becoming parents and therefore we owe it to our colleagues to offer the most supportive environment for colleagues to thrive whilst undergoing this important life transition. 

Keele’s EDI Officer found that, annually, there were 40 staff members commencing maternity or adoption leave, and a further 22 staff taking paternity/partner's leave, when averaged over calendar years 2024 and 2025.  In a recent attempt to establish a support group for staff returning from maternity or adoption leave, 20 women came forward immediately, all either currently pregnant or with a child under two. 

This high level of early engagement demonstrates both the scale of demand and a clear opportunity for the organisation to proactively support retention, wellbeing and successful return-to-work outcomes for a critical group of staff and students. Considering students directly, as the OFS Equality of Opportunity Risk Register notes, students who are parents are more at risk of having limited course/study options, lower rates of progression and insufficient academic and personal support.  

The UK has one of the least generous paternity rights in Europe, where fathers and other eligible non-birthing partners have just two weeks of statutory paternity leave. While having children is one of the biggest life changing moments of a person’s life, it is difficult to comprehend that after two weeks of the significant life transition of becoming a parent, people return to work. It is no wonder that research suggests that over a third of new fathers report being concerned about their mental health during the perinatal period with a key study estimating that newborn babies lose 2 to 3 Dads in the UK a week to suicide (Marchal et al, 2025). While we recognise this is a UK wide issue and that Higher Education is currently undergoing serious financial issues, we would like to consider other ways of supporting new fathers and none-birthing partners during this large life transition huge transition in zero cost ways. 

Supported parents are more likely to feel happier and have the tools to perform at their best – directly benefitting Keele University. The greatest impact of parental leave continues to fall disproportionately on women in heterosexual relationships, who experience the most significant career disruption during this period. Given the persistence of the gender pay gap (of which 80% is attributed to the Motherhood Penalty (World Economic Forum, 2022), improving support around parental transitions is a strategic lever to protect women’s career progression, reduce attrition at key career stages, and mitigate long-term pay and progression penalties associated with having children. 

How We Would Implement This Idea

First Stage (September 2026 to align with strategy launch) - Establish a cross-university working group including HR, new parents and line managers through a workshop setting. This group will provide direct feedback on existing policies and identify any gaps or areas of improvement and co-design practical improvements. 

Second Stage (December 2026) – provide a plan with timescales to implement ideas generated from focus groups. Liaise with key stakeholders to ensure that the plan addresses they key issues that have arisen, alongside a wider consideration of the different phases of this project that may be required. 

Third Stage (March 2027 – ongoing) - development of resources related to support expectant and new parents - Examples of these could be, when colleagues let Human Resources or Line Managers/Academic Tutors, PhD Supervisors, etc. know that they are going to become a parent, they can be signposted to these different sources of support, including: 

• Online resources taking the form of a parenting toolkit (following inspiration from GrowthSpurt and #FindYourMumentum) 
• Group meetings including focused information and feedback sessions 
• Coaching and mentoring.  Take advantage of coaching opportunities (provided through Organisational Development) for specific coaching of parents.  Consider parents with older children to be paired with new parents for a 9-12 month peer-support, mentoring scheme.  
• Training and advice given to line managers around how to best support colleagues who are pregnant, going on maternity leave, as well as those who may have experienced miscarriage, are undergoing fertility issues etc. (if disclosed to line manager).  
• We welcome the reinstatement of the maternity returner’s fund to support the return to work and assistance with getting careers/roles on track. 

When colleagues return from work after becoming a parent: 

• Policy supporting line manager on how to best support individual – including a number of key recorded conversations (pre- return, after 1 month and after 5 months?) 
• Continuation of coaching and mentoring opportunities (available through SUMAC/Organisational Development). 
• Continuation of targeted group meetings and establishing of peer-support networks to support new parents. This could include opportunities to engage and support the wider community and could be run in a variety of venues including Keele in Town as well as with the Campus Nursery.  
• The opportunity for the returner to request regular check ins with their line manager on their return from maternity, paternity, adoptions leave. 

Wider parenting considerations: 

As parents face different challenges further in the parenting journey, a later phase for the consideration of new challenges and how support can be put in place.  Considerations such as navigating wrap-around care, school holidays, supporting parents with children with SEND needs etc. 

What Success Would Look Like

• Improved staff pulse survey outcomes 
• Positive trends in HR return-to-work monitoring 
• Retention and progression of returning parents – Stable or improved retention rates for staff within 12–24 months of returning from parental leave, alongside maintained or improved progression and development outcomes. 
• Evidence of performance enablement through flexibility – anecdotal and manager-reported evidence of sustained or improved performance among parents who have adopted flexible or adjusted working arrangements, demonstrating flexibility as a productivity enabler rather than a risk. 
• Positioning the university as a family-friendly workplace and study location, noting that ongoing support for parents and those with caring responsibilities is a longer term project.  
• Improved experience of student parents returning to study and successfully completing their studies 
• Stronger organisational culture signals and positive employer reputation – examples of anecdotal positive stories and feedback 
• Stronger engagement and effort from staff, benefitting the business directly