Right to Carer’s Leave

John Perryman, Policy and Public Affairs Manager, Carers UK – 25/08/2022

Millions of people in the UK juggle their unpaid caring responsibilities with paid employment. Balancing work and care can be a real struggle – with many carers saying they are tired, stressed and struggling to manage their own physical and mental health having to combine both sets of responsibilities.

Many urgently need more support to ensure they can remain in work – prior to the pandemic, 600 carers a day were having to quit work to care, with dire consequences for themselves and their families, the businesses they worked for, and the wider economy.

Carers UK has long campaigned for a right to Carer’s Leave to be legislated for. This has recently taken a firm step forward as Wendy Chamberlain MP, the Liberal Democrat MP for North East Fife, has introduced a Private Members’ Bill on Carer’s Leave. Carers UK is working closely with Wendy to try to make sure this Bill becomes law.

In principle, the Bill would help support unpaid carers to remain in work alongside their unpaid caring responsibilities and would also support employers with better retention and recruitment of staff, as well as improving the health and wellbeing of their employees.

The Bill’s long title is: ‘Bill to make provision about unpaid leave for employees with caring responsibilities.’ Second Reading of the Bill will take place in the House of Commons on 9 September 2022 and the Employers for Carers team will be updating employers on any developments.

Carers UK is delighted that 95 organisations have already committed to supporting the Bill, including the Care and Support Alliance, Age UK, MS Society, Fawcett Society, Working Families, UNISON, and the Chartered Institute for Personnel Development (CIPD), as well as a number of leading employers.

The Bill has also attracted cross party support from MPs across the House – and we remain hopeful that the Government will provide its support at Second Reading, fulfilling its manifesto commitment to legislate for unpaid carers leave from the 2019 General Election.

If your organisation would like to support our campaign, please complete our sign up form here.

We are also encouraging people to write to their MPs about the campaign. If you would like to do so, please click here.

You can find out more information about the campaign here