University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust signs up to ‘Employer with Heart’ charter
The Smallest Things are thrilled to announce that University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust has signed up to our “Employer with Heart’ charter, particularly as they cared for the family of our Trustee, Matt, when his twin sons were born prematurely in 2015.
By amending their maternity and paternity leave policies to entitle their 10, 000 employees to extra paid leave after a premature birth and by pledging to support parents when they return to work after a premature birth, they join our ‘Employer with Heart’ Hall of Fame as the 9th NHS Trust to sign the charter and we warmly welcome them on board.
University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust have released a video showing the changes they have made to their Compassionate Leave policies, including premature birth, which you can find here.
“We’re delighted to have just launched a new Compassionate Leave Policy for staff to ensure they feel supported during difficult periods in their lives.
As part of this we have signed the charter Supporting Parents of Premature Babies and we’re proud to have been added to the Employers with a Heart hall of fame alongside eight other NHS Trusts.
By signing this charter we have been able to extend maternity and compassionate leave for mothers of premature babies and their partners.
We hope this new approach will give new parents of premature babies the opportunity to spend valuable time with their little ones and make the new chapters in their lives that little bit easier.”
“My wife and I had twin boys, Sam and Harry, at 25 weeks gestation in 2015 at UHCW. Sam sadly passed away when he was 16 days old and Harry was ventilated for nearly 8 weeks before he was transferred back to a local hospital for another 7 weeks. We have never forgotten the care, compassion and support we got from everyone at UHCW at that time. I have since gone on to become a volunteer Trustee of The Smallest Things and am proud to contribute to our work in raising awareness and improving support for families with premature babies. We all know that time with babies when first born is so precious so employers allowing additional leave and support at this time is really priceless. It is great to know UHCW are making the pledge to become an Employer with Heart to help their staff when they need it and also challenge other organisations to follow this approach. Thank you UHCW.”
“We are delighted that University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust has signed up to our ‘Employer with Heart’ charter, particularly as our Trustee Matt has such a special connection with them.
We know that having a premature baby on a neonatal unit can mean caring for your baby under very stressful circumstances, often long term, and this time should not be considered maternity or paternity leave.
Relieving the pressures of work and money on families of premature babies is at the very heart of our ‘Employer with Heart charter’ and now employees of UHCW NHS Trust will not have those worries if they have a premature baby of their own.”