In this section you can see sample policies to guide you through the process of developing your own organisational policies.

You can use these policies as they stand, adapt them to fit your own organisation or use them as a comparison check against your current policies.

Download: 
Sample short carers policy
Sample detailed carers policy

Example: Sainsbury’s
Sainsbury’s estimate that around 20,000 of their colleagues are providing care for an ill, frail or disabled family member or partner, friend or neighbour at any one time. The organisation is committed to supporting these colleagues as part of a wider recognition of the growing issue of balancing working and caring in today’s society, and a belief in the role big businesses can play in driving progress and improving things for carers in the workplace. 

Sainsbury’s are longstanding steering group members of Employers for Carers and the organisation is proud of its leadership approach to supporting colleagues who are balancing work with caring responsibilities. It is one of the few FTSE100 companies with a specific policy for carers, which is known as the Carers People Policy. Staff say that a formal policy in place has made a huge difference in having conversations with other colleagues and their own line managers around the support that is available during challenging times, such as taking time off to go to appointments, changing schedules to fit around caring commitments or making adjustments to ways of working (for example, allowing mobile phones on the shop floor in case of emergencies).

Sainsbury’s strive to create a positive workplace culture and encourage people to think about what it means to be a carer through involvement in campaigns such as Carers Week and Carers Rights Day. The organisation sees this not just as a support to colleagues, but also to the wider public. With over 1,300 supermarkets and convenience stores across the country the organisation is able to reach out to customers and help spread awareness of local community organisations.

Example: Aviva 
Aviva introduced a carers policy and enhanced its bereavement leave benefit for its 16,000 UK-based employees.

The carers policy, which became effective in October 2017, enables full-time employees who have caring responsibilities to take up to 35 hours of paid leave per holiday year for planned events, such as to attend hospital appointments. The policy also allows full-time working carers to take up to 35 hours of paid leave for emergencies per holiday year. The amount of paid leave available for part-time employees who are carers is pro-rated.

In addition to the Carer Policy, we also introduced a Workplace Adjustment passport; which allows employees to request adjustments to their working pattern in the short, medium and long term including formal requests to move from Full to Part-Time working.

Using our Smart and Flexible working policies carers have found solutions that support them too from our range of policies that include paid time-off for emergency/compassionate leave as well as urgent time-off for dependents. Both of these arrangements allow up to 35 hours of paid time per year or pro-rated as appropriate.

Finally, we also provide unpaid leave for parenting and childcare, subject to a maximum 18-week cap, 21 weeks for disabled children.

Alongside the introduction of the new carers policy, Aviva increased its bereavement leave, from 35 hours to 70 hours.

The policy follows a pilot that was undertaken at the organisation’s Bristol site in November 2016. This included 100 employees taking part in the We Care initiative, which provided a support network for employees to share their experiences, as well as the challenges, of juggling work and care commitments. The pilot further enabled Aviva to collect feedback on the issues that its working carers faced.

The Carer’s Policy and associated policy arrangements compliments Aviva’s wider employee wellbeing programme – Wellbeing@Aviva. The programme aims to provide employees with a range of products, policies and advice to help support staff’s overall wellbeing.

Example: Financial Ombudsman Service  
What we’re proud of: supporting carers at work
One in ten of our people have told us they’ve got caring responsibilities. In November 2017, the chief executive of Carers UK, Heléna Herklots, attended the launch of our new carer policy. This means our people are now able to take up to five days’ leave each year for caring responsibilities, in addition to two days’ leave for dependants.

The policy builds on the success of our carers’ passport, established with the support of our carers’ network. The network also holds regular sessions for people to share experiences of caring. People don’t always realise they’re carers. So we’ll be helping our managers to identify where our people might need extra support – and to help them balance their responsibilities at work and home, so they can give their best at both.