2023 Carers Week: Carers and the Workplace

For 2023 Carers Week, we have sought views from a variety of perspectives to look at the issues facing Carers and work.

In this blog we hear from Stuart Perry, an Organiser in the Social Care Sector for the GMB Union, Bernie Huntingdon from Forward Carers, a not-for-profit organisation campaigning for carers and Yvonne Washbourne, from the TUC Midlands Pensioners Network  

TUC Midlands Pensioners Network, Yvonne Washbourne (Chair) 

Why Carers Week is a Trade Union Issue. 

We often think of Care as just Care/Residential homes and people paid to come to our homes to do specific tasks. 

BUT - It's much more. 

Carers Week aims to acknowledge and show support for those of us who care for others but not as a paid job. Trade Union members working or not need to understand how it impacts on peoples lives. 

Teachers with children caring for parents. Adults looking after family and friends who are disabled or elderly. Thousands of people looking after others, often not even calling themselves carers. 

Many doing things that should be funded by Local and or Central Government, saving millions of pounds. 

Carers Week is crucial in raising awareness and supporting our colleagues family and friends. 

Carers Week is a step towards our full understanding of care, and is definitely a trade union issue! 

GMB Midlands, Stuart Perry 

• Do you care for someone at home but occasionally fall foul of policies at work? 

• Do you get conflicted as to your priorities caring or providing? 

• Does your caring responsibilities impact your ability to be able to progress in the workplace to achieve your potential? 

 If you answered yes to any of the above then this is wrong. 

Employers have a responsibility to make “reasonable adjustments” within work to make your life that much easier and to ensure that the person/s that you are caring for gets the care you strive to provide.  

Employers are too often putting “the needs of the business” first, and the staff last, making profit and forgetting it’s the staff that make this happen. 

Reasonable adjustments could include flexible working arrangements, time off for emergencies, parental leave and, finally, under the Equality Act 2010 you have a right to protection at work from discrimination. The protections give you the right not to be harassed and not to be treated any less favourably than your colleagues on the basis you are a carer. This means that you should be overlooked for promotion or bullied at work because you are a carer. 

 GMB Trade Union holds the largest membership within the care sector whether that be personal care for family or friends or being employed within the care sector itself. We offer a wide range of services that cover your work and also understand the issues and impact that caring will have on your job.  

Everyone should have the right not only to ensure the safety of the people you care for but to also progress into a career that is understanding of your needs too.  

Join GMB Today www.gmb.org.uk/join and gain valuable support, guidance and advice from a Trade Union that understands. 

Forward Carers, Bernie Huntingdon 

Who is a Carer? 

A carer is anyone, including adults and children, who looks after a family member, partner or friend who needs help because of their illness, frailty, disability, a mental health problem or an addiction and cannot cope without their support. The care they give is unpaid. (NHS England) 

Using the description above, do you or someone in your workforce carry out any of the following activities for someone who relies on you/them? 

• Pick up food/shopping/medication for someone 

• Make regular check in calls 

• Support someone with physical or practical needs 

• Help with their housework or chores 

• Take someone to / or make their appointments 

• Support someone with their bills ir correspondence 

• Keep someone company or watch over them 

• Provide emotional support 

 
If you answered ‘yes’ there is a range of information, advice and help available to support you in your caring role. There are support services around the West Midlands, here are the contact details. If you live in Birmingham, contact Birmingham Carers Hub and if you live in Walsall, contact Walsall Carers Hub. For those living in the East Midlands or anywhere else in the UK, find your local carer support here. 

It's advised to tell your GP that you are a Carer, he/she will add you to their Carers register and you will they can provide you with really useful support, advice and information. For example, they can refer you to local support networks in your area or help you understand what you're entitled to as a carer – such as a free flu jab. 

If you feel comfortable, you should talk to your line manager at work or someone in your HR department so they are aware of your caring responsibilities at home. 

Carers Week 
The theme for this year’s Carers Week (5 – 11 June) is ‘Recognising and Supporting Carers in the Community’. Unpaid Carers, who are also in paid work, are known as Working Carers. Recognition and support in the workplace empower staff to successfully balance work and an unpaid caring role. 

An awareness week is a great opportunity for employers to start or embed conversations about unpaid caring so that it becomes part of your wider workplace wellbeing and inclusion conversation.  

While unpaid Carers aren’t one of the protected characteristics recognised within equality legislation, with an average of 1.9 million workers across England and Wales becoming a Carer each year, it couldn’t be more important to recognise and support the unpaid Carers amongst your workforce. Very recently, legislation passed into law that gives working Carers the right to five days' unpaid leave each year and future legislation will give all staff the right to request flexible working from day one. Now is the time for all businesses to develop the workplace support and practices that will empower working Carers and businesses to thrive.    

You might be surprised that simply recognising Carers can be quite challenging. 

Did you know? 

• It takes most Carers over a year to identify that they are in a caring role, and for a third of Carers it takes three years. That’s 1 – 3 years without access to any support inside or outside the workplace. 

• Many Carers don’t use (and some don’t like) the word Carer. So, simply asking someone if they are a Carer won’t reveal the staff in your employment who also have caring responsibilities. 

• Many people who do identify as a Carer may still choose not to share this information with their employer due to feeling concerned that this might impact their career. Others may feel worried that the person they speak to won’t understand who a Carer is and the impact of working and caring. 

Fortunately, recognising Carers and providing impactful, low-cost support for working Carers can be simple and easily tailored to each workplace. A Carer Friendly Workplace is one that has positive awareness of the caring role and provides relevant support to their workforce. 

Are you a Carer Aware Workplace? 

The short quiz below is designed for anyone in a role that supports staff – Line Managers, HR staff, Equality Diversity and Inclusion teams, Senior Management - to baseline how Carer Aware / Carer Friendly your organisation is. Score one point for each statement you answer yes to. 

1. All line managers and HR managers can confidently define who is an unpaid Carer. 

2. Staff has a means of recording they are in a caring role. 

3. Line managers and Carers are aware of the support available to working Carers in your organisation – this may be held within a Carers Policy or may be included in other relevant policies, such as Flexible/ Hybrid Working policies, Parental leave/ Time off in an emergency. 

4. Carer awareness raising posters, activities or training is carried out as standard within your organisation. 

5. Your organisation knows the proportion of the workforce that is in an unpaid caring role. 

6. Unpaid Carers were involved in the design of the policies or practices that offer them support. 

7. You have at least one trained Carer Champion in your workplace? 

8. Questions about caring responsibilities are included within your staff survey? 

9. You have a staff network for Carers (separate to a Parents network)? 

10. There are unpaid Carers or ex-Carers amongst your senior team or board. 

If you answered: 

8 - 10 – Congratulations! You are an example of best practice in Carer support. Find out more about the Carer Friendly Employer Commitment Mark, a Carer-verified certification for your business. 

6 - 8  - You are on a journey towards becoming a Carer Friendly Employer, you recognise, value and support the working Carers in your organisation. With a few more steps, you could become a leader in Carer Friendly Employment practice. Find out how the Carer Friendly Employer Commitment Mark (link to Commitment Mark - Forward Carers) and Workplace Training - Forward Carers could support you to become a Carer Friendly Workplace. 

2 – 5 – You have some support in place but it’s likely that this isn’t sufficient to empower Carers to successfully balance work and care. Contact us at carerfriendly@forwardcarers.org.uk to find out how you could take your first steps to becoming Carer Friendly. 

0 – 1 – Uh oh! I think we need to talk! Get in touch asap! 

Regardless of how you scored in the quiz, why not use Carers Week as a great opportunity to talk to your staff about unpaid caring and to reflect on how you can make small changes that will make a big difference to unpaid Carers? 3 in 5 of us will become an unpaid Carer in our lifetime, so it's no surprise employers have begun to realise that supporting their staff who balance work and a caring role makes good business sense. One of the most impactful changes you can make is to raise positive awareness of the caring role, so staff who are also carrying out caring responsibilities feel empowered to share their experiences.  

Why Support Carers in your Workplace? 
There can be no doubt of the moral argument for supporting unpaid Carers. Providing support and care that empowers the amazing army of citizens who dedicate vast portions of their lives and energies to care for some of society’s most vulnerable, to continue in their role, goes without question.  

As the number of Carers increases and the number of hours dedicated to the caring role grows, Carers are at increased risk of reaching crisis point. The challenge of caring for someone and juggling work can be enormous so it’s no surprise that an average of 600 people who balance work and care leave their paid employment every single day. This means that you are in danger of losing some of your most experienced and skilled staff that will detrimentally impact your business, your customers and your finances due to the cost of recruitment and training. 

Use Carers Week as the chance to evaluate your support for Carers in your workplace and if you recognise yourself as a Carer, make it one of your tasks to seek information, advice and support. 

Follow this link to access and download a Carer Awareness training activity for your team. (This resource activity will be available after 6 June 2023)