London Met’s Commitment to Equity & Inclusion
Championing equality, equity, diversity and inclusion lies at the heart of everything we do at London Metropolitan University. We are committed to benchmarking its policies and practices against national schemes that promote best practice for staff and students. This is reflected in our Institutional Values.
Development
What are Equality Impact Assessments?
Equality impact assessments (EIA) are a tool to help organisations ensure that policies, practices, services and decisions are fair for all protected groups.
Equality Impact Assessments can help to identify any barriers to participation or other disadvantages. For example, moving office may affect people in different ways:
- People with children may need to make changes to their commute and day care locations.
- People who are disabled may need the new office and their changed commute to be accessible.
- People with particular religions may need to know about praying facilities and any local places of worship.
An Equality Impact Assessment provides a framework to inform our decision-making processes. Whilst not a legal requirement, EIAs are a credible tool for demonstrating due regard to the public sector equality duty (PSED), which is required by law for all public-sector organisations, like universities.
EIAs at London Met
London Met is required to promote equality in every aspect of our day-to-day business and consider how our actions affect people with different protected characteristics. This means that we must consider, and keep reviewing, how we are promoting equality in:
- decision-making
- internal and external policies procuring goods and services
- the services we provide; and
- recruitment, promotion and performance management of employees
Training for staff is available on completing Equality Impact Assessments and how to conduct an effective Equality Impact Analysis at London Met. This ensures consistency of approach and more robust understanding of the process.
- Equality and Diversity Policy
- Equality Objectives
- EIA Training (staff login required)
Key Policies Supporting our Community
Our adoption policy provides guidance on entitlements to leave and pay arrangements associated with the adoption of a child or obtaining a legal parental order for a child following a surrogacy arrangement.
Our flexible working policy provides guidance to staff on how to request to work flexibly and advice for the relevant manager receiving such requests, to promote good employment practice throughout the university.
We offer a hybrid working model which allows autonomy and flexibility, empowering staff to work to their strengths whilst balancing work and home life. Campus life is a very important part of the student and staff experience. For many roles, a balance of onsite and remote work promotes productivity, efficiency and wellbeing. We also recognise that being on campus is essential for some roles and tasks. We encourage all colleagues to consider whether parts of a role could be carried out in a more flexible way.
Job sharing is the sharing of the duties and responsibilities of one full-time post by two or more people.
Our maternity policy grants 52 weeks of fully paid maternity and adoption leave to qualifying staff. The qualification period for occupational maternity and adoption pay is 26 weeks, in alignment with statutory maternity pay qualification requirements.
Parental leave is an entitlement to unpaid leave to enable birth parents or first parents to take time off to care for a child. This is in addition maternity leave, adoption leave, shared parental leave and paternity leave, which are outlined in separate policies.
Paternity leave is up to eight weeks paid leave to allow the other birth/first parent, or other adopter, to help care for a child or support the parent/adopter who has already taken leave, after the child's birth/adoption placement.
Shared parental leave enables working birth/first parents to share leave in the year after their child’s birth/adoption and take this leave in a flexible way. An eligible parent can choose to bring their maternity/adoption leave to an end early and convert the untaken weeks of maternity/adoption leave into shared parental leave (up to a maximum of 50 weeks), which they and their partner can take as shared parental leave.
We recognise and understand that staff might need time away from work, to deal with events and personal circumstances. Our Special Leave Policy sets out provisions for special leave, which may be paid or unpaid, in the following circumstances:
- Illness of family members and/or dependents
- Bereavement
- Emergency leave for care of dependents
- Maternity related special leave
- Time off for fertility leave
- Grandparent leave
- Carer’s leave
- Examinations
- Appearance in court
- Attendance as a witness in court
- Voluntary public duties including blood donation
- Jury service
- Personal or domestic emergencies
- Religious and cultural observance
Our Equality and Diversity policy sets out how the University intends to meet its equality commitments in respect of staff and students, encompassing its general equality duty and duties in respect of the protected characteristics listed in the Equality Act 2010. This policy applies to all aspects of employment and study at the University, including recruitment, selection, education and the assessment of students.
Condition E6 is an Office for Students (OfS) regulatory requirement in England that legally forces higher education institutions to prevent and respond to harassment and sexual misconduct. The condition covers subject matter relating to incidents of harassment and/or sexual misconduct affecting students.
Adoption Policy
Key Policies Supporting our Community
Our adoption policy provides guidance on entitlements to leave and pay arrangements associated with the adoption of a child or obtaining a legal parental order for a child following a surrogacy arrangement.
Our flexible working policy provides guidance to staff on how to request to work flexibly and advice for the relevant manager receiving such requests, to promote good employment practice throughout the university.
We offer a hybrid working model which allows autonomy and flexibility, empowering staff to work to their strengths whilst balancing work and home life. Campus life is a very important part of the student and staff experience. For many roles, a balance of onsite and remote work promotes productivity, efficiency and wellbeing. We also recognise that being on campus is essential for some roles and tasks. We encourage all colleagues to consider whether parts of a role could be carried out in a more flexible way.
Job sharing is the sharing of the duties and responsibilities of one full-time post by two or more people.
Our maternity policy grants 52 weeks of fully paid maternity and adoption leave to qualifying staff. The qualification period for occupational maternity and adoption pay is 26 weeks, in alignment with statutory maternity pay qualification requirements.
Parental leave is an entitlement to unpaid leave to enable birth parents or first parents to take time off to care for a child. This is in addition maternity leave, adoption leave, shared parental leave and paternity leave, which are outlined in separate policies.
Paternity leave is up to eight weeks paid leave to allow the other birth/first parent, or other adopter, to help care for a child or support the parent/adopter who has already taken leave, after the child's birth/adoption placement.
Shared parental leave enables working birth/first parents to share leave in the year after their child’s birth/adoption and take this leave in a flexible way. An eligible parent can choose to bring their maternity/adoption leave to an end early and convert the untaken weeks of maternity/adoption leave into shared parental leave (up to a maximum of 50 weeks), which they and their partner can take as shared parental leave.
We recognise and understand that staff might need time away from work, to deal with events and personal circumstances. Our Special Leave Policy sets out provisions for special leave, which may be paid or unpaid, in the following circumstances:
- Illness of family members and/or dependents
- Bereavement
- Emergency leave for care of dependents
- Maternity related special leave
- Time off for fertility leave
- Grandparent leave
- Carer’s leave
- Examinations
- Appearance in court
- Attendance as a witness in court
- Voluntary public duties including blood donation
- Jury service
- Personal or domestic emergencies
- Religious and cultural observance
Our Equality and Diversity policy sets out how the University intends to meet its equality commitments in respect of staff and students, encompassing its general equality duty and duties in respect of the protected characteristics listed in the Equality Act 2010. This policy applies to all aspects of employment and study at the University, including recruitment, selection, education and the assessment of students.
Condition E6 is an Office for Students (OfS) regulatory requirement in England that legally forces higher education institutions to prevent and respond to harassment and sexual misconduct. The condition covers subject matter relating to incidents of harassment and/or sexual misconduct affecting students.
Adoption Policy