Barclays Wealth introduced an emergency childcare and carer service in June 2011, to add to a suite of benefits supporting its working parent population.
Since its launch, the scheme has been taken up by 7% (260) of staff across the UK. Sarah Boddey, head of diversity and inclusion at Barclays Wealth, says: “There is normally a peak when the service is first launched, but it was also popular because it was introduced in June, and a lot of employees used the summer holiday care.”
The perk is part of a suite of measures for working parents that the bank has introduced since November 2010. It has also relaunched its flexible working policy, has enhanced maternity pay from 12 to 26 weeks on full pay, and introduced access to 10 transitional days of paid leave to deal with unforeseen circumstances. Boddey adds: “It really recognises those first two years of a child’s life, which can be very difficult.”
The emergency childcare and carer service, provided by My Family Care, adds to these benefits. Employees were previously responsible for co-ordinating their own back-up care, but now have access to a network of prevetted, pre-registered nannies, childminders and school clubs.
The service was communicated via the intranet, emails, the bank’s family and parenting network, lunch-time face-to-face sessions in London with representatives from My Family Care, and via teleconferencing for staff in other UK locations.
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