Meet the University of Reading's first 'flexiparents'

Saturday, 17 November 2012

Andrew and Cristina Charlton-Perez with their youngest son, Christopher

When Cristina and Andrew Charlton-Perez were expecting their second child, they decided to take up the government's offer of splitting their parental leave between them.

Andrew and Cristina are the University's first ‘flexiparents' - pioneers for this new scheme and are definite proof that it can work very well.

Cristina, a Senior Scientist for MetOffice@Reading based in the Department of Meteorology took the first months of the couple's maternity/paternity leave and returned to work in October this year when their son Christopher was seven and a half months old.

Andrew, a Lecturer in the Department of Meteorology, became the first male in the University to take advantage of the government's new Additional Paternity Leave and Pay scheme when Cristina returned to work and he took over full-time care of Christopher for the next three and a half months.

"It is wonderful to be able to take my share of the parenting this time. I am getting to know Christopher really well", said Andrew. "Mirroring the experiences Cristina had as full-time carer means that we are now able to share more with each other. It is a real privilege."

Cristina agrees that the experience has been very positive: "Knowing that Christopher is being looked after by someone that loves him as much as I do means that I am enjoying being back at work. Another benefit is that I have one-to one time with our older son, James as I walk him to the University Nursery each morning."

Cristina added that, "Thanks to the ‘behind the scenes' work of Administrators, Marguerite Gascoine in the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences and Bridget Green in the School of Agriculture, Policy and Development who worked together to make sure that I have access to a private room in the Agriculture building and lockable refrigerator in my office, I can even continue to breast-feed."

The option to share maternity leave/adoption leave is available to all staff irrespective of whether they are both employed by the University as long as certain statutory criteria are met. For more information, please contact your HR Partner who will be very happy to advise you, or visit the gov.uk website.