Mitigation measures for parents in lockdown?

[Catabogus]

Hello All,

I’m just wondering if your universities have offered any mitigation measures for academics who are having to homeschool children while simultaneously teaching full time?

I don’t think we’re allowed to go on furlough (certainly hasn’t been offered) but I’d like to know if anyone has been given any other assistance/allowances from employers/HoDs. Marking extensions? Reduced teaching loads? Less admin? All we seem to have been given so far is pressure to take up “critical worker” places!

I’d like to suggest some possible support mechanisms to my HoD, but it would be great to get an idea of what other places are doing first. Thanks.

In "exceptional circumstances" we are allowed to apply for a five day extension to the marking time. Far less generous than the extensions the students are being given!

And they are kindly allowing staff to be flexible with working hours. So you can work through the night while the kids are in bed!

Oh. Um. That sounds rather underwhelming. I guess a 5-day extension is better than the none we’ve been offered so far, but still. We do have the option to work through the night too!

Reduced teaching loads? Less admin?

Who would cover for the reduced teaching and admin? Most departments don't have spare capacity.

We have been told we can go on furlough. I do have one DC in school and I work part time but if they both have to be home full time I shall be doing that.

@qudylogra

Reduced teaching loads? Less admin?

Who would cover for the reduced teaching and admin? Most departments don't have spare capacity.

If it's a choice between my DCs and my colleagues I'm not very collegiate I'm afraid. There are few of us with two working partners and small children- in fact I think I'm one of two members of teaching staff who is but one is coming back from mat leave may be in this position.

@GCAcademic

In "exceptional circumstances" we are allowed to apply for a five day extension to the marking time. Far less generous than the extensions the students are being given!

And they are kindly allowing staff to be flexible with working hours. So you can work through the night while the kids are in bed!

Oh believe me - we're getting nothing as students with kids we're now having to home-school. Students union had forgotten we existed in their list of demands for the uni to consider until I brought up our pesky non-photogenic for the uni brochures existence.

We're a big department and lots of academics have primary aged children. We're trying to rearrange teaching and marking loads for people who need it. We're trying to cut out as much admin as possible too.

We've been very clear that there is no pressure to use the critical worker scheme for school places.

This is a real problem for us because we are already at high teaching loads and were struggling to find enough graduate teaching assistants/temp staff to cover seminars for large courses in term one. One time I feel lucky to have teens.

If it's a choice between my DCs and my colleagues I'm not very collegiate I'm afraid.

Yes, of course I can see why staff would request reductions in workload, even knowing that the work needs to be done by their colleagues.

But HoDs cannot grant the requests if they just don't have staff available to pick up the extra teaching load. It might be possible to cover for a few staff, but not if a lot of your staff are homeschooling young children. Most well organised departments will already have pulled the workload down as much as they can & postponed admin where they can e.g. programme revalidations, curriculum changes.

If I'm home educating both my DCs full time then my department has the choice between me not doing any work and getting paid as normal or not doing any work but on furlough...

But HEI have been told not to furlough staff paid from public funds - this is clear in the letters from the Government. Really not sure why your institution thinks they can furlough teaching staff.

I'm not clear either but we are having a chat with HR later (awkward home learning child permitting).

Could reducing teaching burden not involve actually reducing teaching? (Rather than just shifting onto colleagues without small children?) I mean, we could offer fewer classes, fewer “supplementary” activities etc - even ask some GTAs to teach if they wanted perhaps.

OK - I think Unison may know better than either of us:
www.unison.org.uk/at-work/education-services/key-issues/covid-19-advice-staff/#:~:text=Can%20they%20furlough%20me%3F,to%20pay%20their%20staff%20normally.

The government guidance is more vague and leans more towards NOT furloughing
www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-financial-support-for-education-early-years-and-childrens-social-care/coronavirus-covid-19-financial-support-for-education-early-years-and-childrens-social-care#higher-education

But I'm not teaching "attending students" for most of this term (most of my teaching was last term, if flexibly furloughed I could sort out my tutees). And if the University is allowed to furlough "people who need it/can't do their job" up to their non-publicly funded wage bill, it sounds like they can choose WHO is furloughed out of all their employees as long as it isn't too many of them.

As I say, we have very few primary carers on our department's academic staff and we have a pattern of this among academic staff (we have a particularly egregious sex pay gap because we have a lot of female PS partnered with male academics for historic and geographic reasons). So there are likely to be fewer teaching staff who want to be furloughed for childcare reasons.

Anyway, as I say, we are meeting HR so we shall see.

Our teaching has been a bit reduced by offering fewer seminars than if in person. We haven't got any GTA's spare to do lots and lots of seminars, so the seminars are all online, and divided up with generous student numbers in each. Anyone who has a big class has a GTA to do seminars anyway.

We've had MORE seminars than we did in person!

And if the University is allowed to furlough "people who need it/can't do their job" up to their non-publicly funded wage bill, it sounds like they can choose WHO is furloughed out of all their employees as long as it isn't too many of them.

The first part is my institution's interpretation. However, across the university there are a lot of academics homeschooling. Our HR would insist that any option to furlough should be available to all those academics in similar situations for equity -- and this would be far too many to make it feasible to offer furlough.

Apparently strong discouragement for HEI to use much furlough in calls between VCs and ministers.

HR are still saying it's allowed - but they are going away to check.
They have also suggested using parental leave (you do need to give notice and it's unpaid but we could use that in the summer for our actual holiday I suppose) and the emergency carer's leave plus AL. I'm fairly determined my DCs will not suffer (and selfishly I can't actually work if they are both home anyway, unless they are both able to go out i.e. not self-isolating and DH takes them out).

Who would cover for the reduced teaching and admin? Most departments don't have spare capacity

Exactly.

I'm in absolute awe of academic parents juggling home schooling and can't imagine how anyone achieves anything and believe they should receive maximum support

My institution has made it clear that departments should support shifting workloads around to accommodate parents. The real issue is that the workload is terrifying at the moment and I really can't imagine how in practical terms this works

I'm pushing 60 and I stand in solidarity with my colleagues but I haven't the stamina or capacity to take on further work

Can you explain why you're not sending your dc to school - you're eligible for a keyworker place so wouldn't have to be homeschooling at the same time as working?

I teach in a school and there is understanding of colleagues' home situations, but no compromise when it comes to teaching. Our head has even supported us to gain keyworker places for our kids (when their schools said they were too full of sah/one keyworker family/mat leave kids)

My institution has made it clear that departments should support shifting workloads around to accommodate parents

And for colleagues who are not parents? What are the consequences for them ...?

Can you explain why you're not sending your dc to school - you're eligible for a keyworker place so wouldn't have to be homeschooling at the same time as working

Because there are no spaces. We've been asked to keep ours home if we are at home and to keep them home if we're WFH due to the number of vulnerable children, parents who are carers, nurses etc. I have some part time school and I'm very grateful.

And for colleagues who are not parents? What are the consequences for them ...?

I guess the plan is to flog that part of the workforce to death in order to appease our university masters 🤷🏻‍♀️

@Ffsffsffsffsffs

Can you explain why you're not sending your dc to school - you're eligible for a keyworker place so wouldn't have to be homeschooling at the same time as working?

I teach in a school and there is understanding of colleagues' home situations, but no compromise when it comes to teaching. Our head has even supported us to gain keyworker places for our kids (when their schools said they were too full of sah/one keyworker family/mat leave kids)

The DfE have said that HE teaching staff are only eligible to send their children to school if they are teaching F2F.