Vol. 530 No. 6
323 Ms Fitzgerald asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the way in which his Department intends to mark the family friendly workplace day on 1 March 2001; the initiatives he has in this area; and the way in which family friendly initiatives are being implemented for the staff in his Department. [4719/01]
Family friendly workplace day on 1 March 2001 is an initiative of the national framework committee for the development of family friendly policies established under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness. The purpose of the day is to promote the implementation of family friendly policies at the level of the enterprise. Plans include a media campaign promoting information about family friendly policies and practices, widespread dissemination to employers, workplaces and workers representatives of posters and information brochures; and the launch of a website providing useful infor mation about the options available and how they might be adapted to suit different employments.
The Civil Service has led the way in introducing family friendly policies to the workplace. My Department, as one of the largest employers in the Civil Service with some 4,500 staff has been very supportive in implementing various initiatives introduced in recent years. In addition to statutory entitlements such as maternity, adoptive and parental leave, schemes available to staff in my Department to assist them in reconciling their work and family responsibilities include flexitime, job-sharing, career breaks, special leave for domestic purposes and term time leave. My Department was the first area of the Civil Service to pilot term time working, which is intended primarily as an additional facility to assist staff with young children to combine work and family responsibilities by enabling them to take up to three months leave during the summer school holiday period. While the leave is unpaid, special salary arrangements are in place so that staff members can spread the cost of availing of term time leave over a longer period. While the granting of term time summer leave is subject to the needs of the work, this year some 214 out of 227 applications have been approved in the Department. The scheme is now in place to be made available annually, with a review due in three years.
It is envisaged that the scope of existing arrangements to assist Civil Service employees with family responsibilities will be extended further by the introduction of work-sharing later this year and by Government initiatives announced in the budget to support the provision of crèche facilities. The availability of many of these schemes to staff is dependent on the circumstances in individual sections of the Department and the need to ensure the service being provided for the public can continue to be delivered.
On family friendly day on 1 March it is planned to circulate a summary of the family friendly schemes available and to encourage staff with family responsibilities to seek information about the options available to them to better balance their work and family commitments. Further initiatives to follow up the day are under consideration.
