My main place of employment is going to start a ‘carers passport’ scheme which aims to support employees with unpaid caring responsibilities to have flexible working, time off for emergencies and so on.
I am lucky so far because my work is usually flexible and more or less home based, but I must admit, even in that context, it has been hard to juggle full time work and caring responsibilities.
My employers cannot tell me too much about the scheme until it starts or is piloted in January, but I would like to know a bit more about it before then.
Does anyone know if these are generic schemes, or if each employer does something different.
I haven’t read all of it but check it out to see if there is anything in there that could fit your situation - alternatively perhaps the CUK Adviceline would give you more information ?
Our telephone Helpline is available on 0808 808 7777 from Monday to Friday, 9am – 6pm (excluding Bank Holidays) or you can contact us by email (advice@carersuk.org)
If you have a more complex query, we suggest you email us, as we’ll be able to provide more information.
Carers Passports tend to vary from company to company - depending on what support they are able to give. As @susieq says, CUK has been promoting carers support by working with employers, and they may be able to offer suggestions as to the kind of things that other companies have done, but ultimately it’s going to be up to your employer.
Thank you. These are very helpful replies. Reading more about the scheme, I can see that it will involve a person to person talk and arrangement between the employee and their manager.