Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

HR practiceFlexible benefitsPay & benefitsWork-life balance

Inflexible support services force carers to quit

by Personnel Today 21 Sep 2005
by Personnel Today 21 Sep 2005

The government needs to do more to ensure support services are flexible enough to allow carers to stay in employment, according to the pressure group Employers for Carers.

There are six million unpaid carers in the UK, many combining work with care. They save the economy an estimated £57bn each year and the number of carers is expected to rise as the older population grows.

But unless the government provides more support services, carers will be forced to leave their jobs and employers will lose out in competition for talent, warned Employers for Carers.

Although the organisation has provided education, information and support to help companies that employ carers, it wants to “hand the torch” to government, said Madeleine Starr, Employers for Carers’ project manager.

“The bottom line is we can be as supportive as possible, but if there is no external support service, carers will not be able to work,” she said.

The government is undertaking a review of health and social services called ‘Your health, your care, your say’, and Starr urged employers to present their case to the policy makers. “It’s a great opportunity to ensure the policy includes the impact on carers’ working lives,” she said.

Starr welcomed the government’s planned extension of legislation to allow carers to ask for flexible working, but said there was more to be done. “We need joined-up thinking across government, looking at service provision in the way we did for childcare 20 years ago,” she added.

Last week, Roy Gardner, chief executive of Centrica and president of charity Carers UK, put the group’s case to Margaret Hodge, the minister for work, at a dinner at the House of Lords hosted by Baroness Pitkeathley, a long-time campaigner for carers.

Avatar
Personnel Today

previous post
Lunch hour is a myth for travel agent staff
next post
Revenue and Customs staff question management effectiveness

You may also like

Lack of flexibility pushes half of women to...

16 May 2022

‘Small spike’ in minimum wage underpayment among 20-24...

13 May 2022

BBC awards pay increase as pension scheme review...

12 May 2022

Queen’s Speech: Exclusivity contracts for low-paid workers to...

9 May 2022

Are we happy now? New research Sugar-coats working...

6 May 2022

KPMG offers pay rises of £2k or £4k...

6 May 2022

Alan Sugar calls PwC Friday afternoons off a...

6 May 2022

Pay transparency: How organisations can break the taboo

5 May 2022

Survey reveals public desire for CEO pay restraint

4 May 2022

Law firm says staff can work from home...

3 May 2022
  • What it really means to be mentally fit PROMOTED | What is mental fitness...Read more
  • How music can help to ease anxiety at work PROMOTED | A lot has happened since March 2020, hasn’t it?...Read more
  • Why now is the time to plug the unhealthy gap PROMOTED | We’ve all heard the term ‘health is wealth’...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+