Who Cares Wins: employer

support and employment rights for carers in the UK

Madeleine Starr MBE Emily Holzhausen

Carers UK

Who cares?

We all care or will have to care• The bulk of care has always been provided within

relationships and families – in the EU 80% of care is provided by families

• By 2050 globally three times more people of working age will be looking after 2 billion ageing family members

• More people are living longer, and at home, with disability and illness

Which means…• More people needing care and more people needing to

provide that care

Who works?

We all work or will have to work and work longer• By 2060 there will be only 2 people working for each 1 in

retirement, compared to 4 to 1 today• Our economy will need a shrinking workforce to work

longer to meet growing care and pensions bills - at a point when many people will be sandwiched between caring roles

• Choosing between work and care will not be an option for individuals or the economy

Which means…• More support needed to combine work with care

Juggling work and care in the UK

• Of the UK’s 6 million carers, 58% are women, 42% are men

• Nearly 80% - 4.4 million – are of working age• 3 million – 1 in 7 people in the UK workforce - juggle paid

work with care, 2 million full time, 1 million part time• 400,000 people combine work with 20+ hours of care per

week 200,000 people combine work with 50+ hours of care per week

• Male carers are more likely to work than women - 6 out of 10 work, 90% full time

• Women carers are more likely to work part time

Impact of care on work in the UK

• 2.3 million people move in and out of caring each year, so caring impacts on individuals, employers and the economy year on year

• Carers UK’s State of Caring Survey 2011 of 4000 carers found that nearly 1 in 3 had reduced their working hours or given up work to care

• Research by LSE has estimated the public expenditure costs of carers giving up work to care as a £1.3 billion in England alone, £1 billion in lost tax, £300 million in Carers Allowance costs

• Total costs - taking account of lost earnings - are a staggering £5.3 billion UK wide, 0.3% of GDP

Why carers give up work

• Stress of juggling work and care– High levels of care– Unpredictability of care– Caring at a distance

• Unsuitability or inflexibility of care services• Affordability of care services• Inflexibility of workplaces

What carers need

• Understanding from managers and colleagues• Access to advice and information

– Signposting to support– Peer support/carers networks

• Flexibility (often short-term)– Flexible working arrangements– Flexible leave arrangements, including a response to

emergencies

• Practical support– Private space for a call or parking close to work

The legislative response 1

• Employment Relations Act 1999– Right to emergency leave to care for dependants– Amendment to Regulations in 2002 to introduce right

to request flexible working for parents, including parents of disabled children up to the age of 18

• Work and Families Act 2006– Right to request flexible working for someone caring

for a spouse, partner, civil partner or relative, or living at the same address as the adult in need of care

The legislative response 2

• Equality Act 2010– Following the ruling in the Coleman Case by the

European Court of Justice in 2008, this gives carers protection from discrimination on the grounds of association with disability or age

– This applies to employment, and the supply of goods and services

• Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act (2004)– Local Authority Carers Assessments must take

account of carers’ access to work, learning and leisure

Leading good practice: Employers for Carers

Employers membership forum, administered byCarers UK and designed to:• Provide a practical service to employers seeking to

develop carer friendly workplace policies and practices• Identify and promote the business benefits of supporting

carers in the workplace• Influence employment policy and practice to create a

culture which supports carers in and into work

Leadership Group committed to influencing policy: • Chaired by BT and supported by the specialist

knowledge of Carers UK

How EfC influences practice

• Promoting awareness and understanding – Changing the workplace culture

• Developing workplace practice– Reviewing, implementing and embedding policies and

practice for employees and line managers

• Facilitating peer support – Face to face and virtual networks

• Case Study: London Fire Brigade’s LFB Connect

How EfC influences policy

• EfC Leadership Group– Committed to working with Government to inform

policy and influence practice, bringing the employer voice to public debate

– Originally an interest group brought together through the ACE National partnership, led by Carers UK, through which it:

• Supported the Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act 2004 and Work and Families Act 2006

• Contributed to the Employment Taskforce of the 2008 National Carers Strategy

• Supported the launch of EfC as a membership forum

Key achievements since 2009• Memorandum of Understanding with HM Government,

March 2010: unique mechanism for engagement • Business Case for Supporting Carers in, and into,

Employment, Annexe to Recognised, Valued and Supported, ‘refreshed’ National Carers Strategy, November 2010

• Conditions for Carers in Employment, April 2011• Response to Government’s Modern Workplaces

consultation, August 2011• Care Summit, June 2012, hosted jointly by EfC and HM

Government, exploring new models for care services• Co-chair of subsequent Task and Finish Group

Next steps• Task and Finish Group report, March 2013

– Evidence base for supporting carers in and into employment

– Evidence base for investing in care services as a condition for employment

– Evidence from Europe• Growing the employer voice in the care debate

– Care: the new childcare?• Growing employer membership of the forum to

roll out good practice• Growing the forum model beyond the UK

Care and Technology in the 21st Century

Madeleine Starr MBEEmily Holzhausen

Carers UK

Challenges and opportunities

• Challenges for 21st century societies– Demand for care– Demand for work

– Globalisation • Opportunities through technology

– Transformation of health and care delivery, and greater sustainability through cost efficiencies, systems integration and new workforce practice

– Flexible working and flexible caring to sustain more productive, healthier and longer working lives

– New markets in health and care technologies

What do we mean by technology?

• Anything that works!– Internet: information, access to products and services,

peer support, workplace support, community support

– Telehealth

– Telemedicine

– Telecare

– Telerehabilitation

– Mobile technologies

– Apps for health and care

– Self care: Wii-Fit, Carewell,Healthvault

Opportunities for health and care

• Service solutions and cost efficiencies– WSD findings: reduced hospital admissions, less time

spent in hospital and A&E, lower mortality rates– 2020 Health: £1billion savings and better outcomes

through scaled telehealth solutions– Scotland Telecare Development Programme and

Digital Wales: health and care service efficiencies

• Three Million Lives: targets for supporting long term health and care needs

• New ways of working across health and care

Threats for health and care

• Public funding constraints on ‘invest to save’• Poor service integration• Workforce buy-in• New and untested commissioning structures• Poorly developed and fragmented market, public

and private• Lack of awareness of new technologies• Poor perception of new technologies

Opportunities for families and carers

• Better access to advice and information• Better access to products and services• Personalised and cost effective service solutions• A life outside caring, enabled by flexible services

– Work– Community participation– Leisure

Threats for families and carers

• Digital exclusion– Affordability– Accessibility – Reliability

• Lack of awareness of products and services• Lack of information on accessing products and

services• Inflexible service solutions: ‘one size fits all’• Poorly developed private purchase market

Opportunities for employers

• Delivering workplace support for carers– Information and signposting– Training, e.g., Knowledge Calls– Peer support, e.g., virtual carers networks

• Delivering workplace support for managers– Online resources, including training– Virtual ‘Lunch and Learn’ and webinars

• Delivering flexibility– Remote working– Remote caring

Threats for employers

• Internal– Lack of awareness of issues for carers – Lack of awareness of technology solutions – Fear of opening the ‘flexibility floodgates’– Line management resistance

• External– Poor or patchy advice and information on products

and services– Poor or patchy flexible service delivery

Opportunities for the economy

• Sustainable health and care systems– New models of service delivery resulting in long term

cost efficiencies

• Sustainable workforce– Currently 300,000 carers are forced to give up work to

care each year, at a cost of £5.3 billion – The cost to employers of replacing someone lost to

caring equates to one year of their salary

• New markets in health and care technologies, including for private purchase

Threats for the economy

• ‘Valley of death’: challenges in bridging the gap between technology R&D and implementation

• Systems resistance: lack of vision• Lack of investment in new markets or new

market players• Short termism: failure to act on demographic

realities

Next steps

• Identifying policy levers– Health and Wellbeing Boards and JSNAs– Clinical Commissioning Groups– Delivering Care Markets for Quality and Choice: local

Market Position Statements

• Identifying investment levers– Three Million Lives– Plan for Growth– DALLAS– 2013 Comprehensive Spending Review

Carers UK

Websites:

www.carersuk.org

www.employersforcarers.org

madeleine.starr@carersuk.org

emily.holzhausen@carersuk.org