Family friendly benefits

Enhanced paternity and partner leave and pay

SOAS offers an enhanced Paternity/Partner Leave of two weeks at full pay.

Adoption and surrogacy leave

An adoptive parent is entitled to the same benefits as the SOAS Maternity Leave Package, provided they are the main carer.

Shared parental leave

SOAS offers shared parental leave for parents, whether it is the primary carer or their partner who work at the School, or both. This gives parents more flexibility in how to share the care of their child in the first year following the birth/adoption. Eligible staff are entitled to up to 52 weeks of shared leave to be taken together or in discontinuous blocks.This leave can match maternity/adoption/surrogacy leave, depending on the length of your service.

Parental leave

Parents can take up to 18 weeks of unpaid parental leave per child for any child under the age of 5, or up to 5th anniversary of the child’s placement in case of adoption or under the age of 18 if the child has been awarded disability living allowance.

Childcare allowance scheme

SOAS offers eligible staff members £25 per week in Childcare Allowance to be taken for up to 4 times each year.

Childcare vouchers and tax-free childcare

As a parent, you may be entitled to Tax-Free Childcare, a free HMRC programme to assist parents with childcare needs. This scheme replaces the government’s Childcare Vouchers scheme. If you joined the Childcare Vouchers scheme on or before 4 October 2018 you may be able to keep receiving and using the vouchers. Please refer to the gov.uk website to determine your eligibility.

Out-of-hours payments

This scheme allows you to claim up to two payments per academic year to a maximum of £100 each of funding towards the cost of adult and/or childcare in order to attend occasional out of hours activities linked to career enhancement, such as attending evening conferences and seminars, research presentation opportunities, representing SOAS.

Emergency care payments

This scheme allows you to claim funding towards the cost of arranging emergency childcare support and care for dependent adults when your existing arrangements have fallen through at short notice. You can claim up to 2 payments per academic year up to a maximum of £100 each. 

Flexible working

SOAS recognises the importance of helping its employees balance their work and home life and is committed to considering and agreeing, where possible, requests for flexible working. We are committed to flexible working solutions such as flexi-time, term-time working, remote working, job sharing, compressed hours, and staggered hours.

Paid carer's leave

SOAS offers up to 14 hours paid time off per year for emergency child care and carer’s care (pro rata for part time staff). 

Enhanced maternity leave and pay

Enhanced Maternity Leave and Pay

After 52 weeks or more continuous service:

  • 18 weeks full pay
  • 8 weeks half pay
  • 13 weeks at the statutory rate

You can choose to take the remaining 13 weeks of your maternity leave without pay.

If you have 38 to 52 weeks continuous service:

  • 12 weeks full pay
  • 4 weeks half pay
  • 23 weeks at the statutory rate

You can choose to take the remaining 13 weeks of your maternity leave without pay.