On Tuesday 11th February, Employers for Carers hosted an insightful webinar on building the business case for paid carer’s leave. It was a powerful session filled with actionable insights and inspiring conversations. Here’s a quick recap of what we covered:
Helen Walker, our CEO, opened the session by marking Carers UK’s 60th Anniversary with the theme ‘Equality: Today and Tomorrow’, reflecting on the significant progress made and the ongoing work needed to secure equality for carers in every aspect of life.
Helen shared key findings from our latest report, The Carer’s Leave Act: Six Months On, shedding light on how organisations are adopting statutory unpaid leave and those that are going over and beyond. The results are promising:
- 44% of organisations now offer some form of paid carer’s leave.
- 51% have implemented a dedicated carer’s leave policy—up from just 23% before the Act.
With almost 3 million workers in the UK (State of Caring 2024) balancing paid employment with unpaid caregiving responsibilities, Helen stressed the importance of enabling carers to remain in paid employment if they choose to and called on businesses to lead by example.
Many working carers still face multiple barriers in juggling work and care. Over half feel they cannot take advantage of their statutory rights due to the financial burden of unpaid leave. Offering paid carer’s leave is crucial for overcoming these challenges and ensuring a more inclusive, sustainable workforce. The benefits of supporting carers are vast, ranging from retention, improving employee well-being, and enhancing overall productivity.
We heard directly from our EfC member organisations about their journey to offering paid carer’s leave. The discussion covered everything from proposal to senior leadership sign-off, and the practical steps involved:
- Iman Abdi from Sodexo emphasised the question: “Why shouldn’t we be offering this?” Their approach was straightforward—if carers are a vital part of the workforce, why not support them with the leave they deserve? They had a detailed roadmap for implementation and integration with clear markers at each point to support their 30,000 employees in UK and Ireland.
- Chloe Milham at Thales UK shared that this was about cultivating the right behaviours—creating a workplace where employees have choices over their personal and professional experiences. Using Carers UK reports and key statistics to make the business case enabled senior leadership to see how much of their workforce was affected. By offering carer’s leave, they not only enable a healthier work-life balance, but they also noted that allowing carers to use dedicated leave, rather than annual or sick leave, provides more accurate absence data and better long-term planning.
- Melanie West from Hertfordshire County Council explained how they decided that the long-term value of supporting carers outweighed the initial and foreseeable costs. Even when early data didn’t fully support the investment, they stood by their decision, confident it was the right thing to do, and the data is now very much supporting this move.
The webinar also covered the important factors organisations need to consider when implementing paid carer’s leave:
- Costings & Value Add: We discussed the initial concerns around cost, and how implementing paid carer’s leave can provide long-term value in terms of employee satisfaction, retention, and productivity.
- Implementation Roadmap: From senior leadership buy-in to execution, we explored practical steps organisations can take to introduce paid carer’s leave, including overcoming operational challenges and managing different needs between office roles and frontline staff.
The webinar sparked lively conversations around several hot topics, including:
- The Carer Passport: Is this a potential tool to help track and support employees with caregiving responsibilities?
- Data Collection: How can organisations gather accurate data on carer-related absences and use that to plan effectively?
- Barriers for Operational vs. Office Roles: We explored the unique challenges faced by operational employees versus those in office settings, and how to create a fair system for all.
The session left us with a powerful takeaway: offering paid carer’s leave isn’t just about being compassionate—it’s about creating a supportive and productive environment where employees can truly thrive. This is an important step toward building a more inclusive, forward-thinking workforce.
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