{"id":3114,"date":"2023-04-04T11:29:30","date_gmt":"2023-04-04T11:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/efcdigitalwales.org\/?p=3114"},"modified":"2023-09-14T14:40:45","modified_gmt":"2023-09-14T14:40:45","slug":"bt-a-working-carers-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/efcdigitalwales.org\/cy\/2023\/04\/04\/bt-a-working-carers-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"BT \u2013 A working carer\u2019s experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matt Taylor, Technology Graduate, BT, and Committee Member of BT\u2019s Carers Network \u2013 21\/04\/2022<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 I became a full-time carer at the age of 10 when my mum\u2019s disability started. My childhood was spent running a household, looking after my younger siblings, and caring for my mum. At that age I really didn\u2019t consider that that was a lot of responsibility for a child. Not unlike a lot of adult carers, I simply just got on with caring for my mum and did the best I could. As I have gotten older, I\u2019ve come to realise just how hard it was and the impact it had and still has on mine and my family\u2019s lives. On a positive note, my mum tells me I am a very thoughtful wheelchair pusher \u2013 looking out for drains and how the pavement undulates is my secret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward to adulthood and I moved to university, completing a BSc and MSc degree, and I\u2019m now part of the 2021 graduate intake at BT. As a result, my carer role has become more part-time. Naturally, this has led to feelings of guilt and a pressure to make sure the right level of care is available for my mum when I\u2019m not present. I think it is incredibly important to recognise a lot of carers feel guilt, including those that are full-time, we can always see what more we could be doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Worryingly, with the ever-increasing costs of living, it is becoming harder for carers to provide the same level of care. Therefore, working for an employer that has measures in place to care for carers was of utmost importance to me. At BT I work in the \u2018Digital\u2019 space as a backend developer, but I also play an active role in BT\u2019s Carers Network as a committee member.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Carers Network at BT are amazing, there is a diverse range of caring experience from full time carers to allies. We all have a shared belief in that we want BT to be recognised as one of the best employers in the country for how it supports carers.  Currently we are signed off as Level 2 Carer Confident (EFC & Carers UK) – a huge achievement. We are now pushing for the final level, Level 3 Carer Confident, which only a handful of companies in the UK have achieved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a lot of carers, juggling caring and work can be akin to having two full-time jobs.  To help with this the Carer Network helped push through the BT Passport. The BT Passport is a simple word document which can be completed by any colleague who feels their circumstances could have an impact on their ability to work. This allows for your line manager to be aware of your circumstance without you having to specifically communicate it. The passport is one example of the many ways we support our caring employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Describing what you do as a carer is quite hard, and I think as carers we are often guilty of not realising all the little things we do \u2013 we just do it. Part of my motivation to help BT reach Level 3 Carer Confident is that I would like employees to be able to recognise themselves as carers. Anyone can become a carer at any stage of their life, be that at 10 years old or 50 years old. I am proud to say I work for an employer that accommodates carers and that we are working with Employers for Carers who are helping improve standards industry wide. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matt Taylor, Technology Graduate, BT, and Committee Member of BT\u2019s Carers Network \u2013 21\/04\/2022  I became a full-time carer at the age of 10 when my mum\u2019s disability started. My childhood was spent running a household, looking after my younger siblings, and caring for my mum. At that age I really didn\u2019t consider that that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20857,"featured_media":8064,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/efcdigitalwales.org\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/efcdigitalwales.org\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/efcdigitalwales.org\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/efcdigitalwales.org\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20857"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/efcdigitalwales.org\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/efcdigitalwales.org\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/efcdigitalwales.org\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/efcdigitalwales.org\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/efcdigitalwales.org\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/efcdigitalwales.org\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}