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Published: 16 Jun 2015

UK Civil Service, Finalist 2015, The Citymothers Best for all Stages of Motherhood Award

The Civil Service employs over 400,000 people, 53.3% of whom are women. It believes that to deliver high-quality services every talented individual must have the opportunity to progress. Becoming a mother should not be a barrier to career success. Currently 37.9% of the Senior Civil Service are women.

The Civil Service is committed to co-ordinated action across Government to address barriers and bring together best practice.

The new Cross-Government Women’s Network was formed in January 2015 and shares best practice across departments such as the work of the Home Office Women’s Network and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills’ Parenting and Part-time networks. All women returning from maternity leave are required to complete a questionnaire capturing their experiences and views on departments’ management of maternity leave. The results of these questionnaires are used to identify issues and monitor the performance of departments.

In March 2015, the new Civil Service ‘Job Share Finder’ was launched to facilitate job-share partner-matching across departments. The Job Share Finder allows the Civil Service to retain talented individuals and ensure that it remains an employer of choice. This new tool supports flexible working for employees with caring responsibilities, as well as those wishing to change their working patterns, and will particularly benefit women, who make up the majority of the Civil Service’s carers. It enables users to search for partners by Government department, geographical location and grade. Through this tool users can establish a job-share partnership and apply for new and challenging opportunities, while balancing carer responsibilities.

The Civil Service Job Share Finder is accompanied by new Civil Service Job Share Guidance, which provides advice to staff and managers on setting up a partnership, recruiting, managing a job-share partnership and includes real-life case studies. Together these products demonstrate the Civil Service’s determination to ensure that becoming a parent or choosing to work flexibly does not mean the end of career progression.