Carers Week this year runs from 9-15 June and aims to highlight the challenges unpaid carers face and recognise the vital contribution they make to families.
Research conducted by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) projects that by 2035 there will be an additional 400,000 carers in the UK and 130,000 of these ‘new’ carers will be of working age.
These predictions show that it is likely that employers are going to have questions being asked about carers’ rights in the workplace in the coming years, where employees will be asking to take time off to care for an elderly relative for instance, so it is important for employers to get up to speed with what legal rights employees currently have.
Recent changes to carers’ rights
From 6 April 2024, a change was made to the law around carers’ rights by way of the introduction of the Carer’s Leave Act 2023 and the Carer’s Leave Regulations 2024. As a result, employees who are unpaid carers are now allowed up to a week’s unpaid leave every 12 months (a ‘week’ means the length of time they usually work over 7 days) to support them with their caring responsibilities.
To be entitled to this benefit, employees need to be providing long-term care to a dependant (this is a relatively wide definition which includes but is not limited to their spouse, child, or parent in addition to an individual who relies on them for care, such as an elderly neighbour) and will need to notify their employer of their plans to take carer’s leave in advance where possible. This is a day one right that applies to all employees. It is important to reiterate that employees have the right not to be dismissed or be subjected to a detriment on the basis that they have taken or sought to take time off in accordance with these provisions.
What can employers be doing now?
The right to carer’s leave has been in force for some time, so employers should be aware of this and should spread awareness of the new right to take carer’s leave among their line managers and employees alike. A great way to do this is by issuing and implementing a carer’s leave policy (if one does not already exist) and ensuring that line managers are trained in its application. Any policy may include more generous provisions than those envisaged by the statutory scheme, for example allowing for paid or unpaid time off for carers for a longer period than a week or in a wider range of circumstances.
To further ensure employees who may have caring responsibilities are supported, employers should ensure they have recently reviewed their current flexible working policies to make sure that they reflect the current legal position post the relatively recent changes in April 2024, making the right to make a request a day-one right, and amending the approach an employer should take in dealing with a request.
Alongside this, it would be sensible for employers to review their equality and diversity suite of policies as a whole and, if required, roll out new awareness campaigns and refresher training.
It is important for employers to be flexible and supportive when employees have caring responsibilities. It may be that employees need to provide more support for a family member at a particular time of the day, such as helping them get up in the morning or taking them to regular appointments, and in these situations, the Flexible Working (Amendment) Regulations 2023 can be especially useful (as outlined below).