A workplace Carer Passport is essentially:

• A tool to help facilitate a conversation between an employee and their line manager about caring responsibilities and any support needs, and 
• A record which identifies that an employee is a carer and sets out an offer of support, service or other benefits in response.  

The benefits include:

It provides a relatively straightforward way to document flexibility and support so that it can be carried into an employee’s future roles, without having to repeat the same conversations.

It can help to create a supportive working culture where staff feel that they have ‘permission’ to talk about their circumstances in a safe environment. It can also help communicate existing workplace support for carers and encourage managers to apply policies more consistently across the organisation.

Carers UK and Carers Trust have launched a Carer Passport scheme, funded by the Department of Health, to help raise awareness of the model and its benefits for employees and employers. 

Introducing a Carer Passport could help employers retain valuable staff who are combining work and care. We have evidence on its benefits from both employers and carers using the scheme, including EfC members. Check out the Carer Passport website for more information about how developing a Carer Passport in your workplace could make all the difference to both you and your working carers view the video. 

In addition to the Carer Passport toolkit, EfC have created an editable Carer Passport template that your organisation can personalise and use within the workplace. You can download the template here.

Workplace examples

One of the earliest models of a Carer Passport was developed by The Charity for Civil Servants to support all Civil Service employees in the workplace. The Charity has worked with many government departments to introduce it to senior and middle managers and since 2010 it has benefited thousands of employees. 

Another early model was developed by BT, whose Carer Passport can be completed by any BT employee who has caring responsibilities which they believe could have an impact on their ability to work currently or in the future. It is supported by a factsheet produced by the Communication Workers Union.

Example: BT Group 

To help our people who are Carers have meaningful conversations with their Line Managers about their caring responsibilities, we created the Carers Passport.  A BT passport can be completed by anyone who feels their caring circumstances could have an impact on their ability to work either currently or at some point in the future.  It is a simple word document that can be downloaded from the intranet and used at a meeting between the line manager and the individual.  It will describe what the caring responsibilities are, how they might impact on the individual’s work and any reasonable adjustments that might be needed. 

Carers across the organisation have told us it’s really helpful to have a passport, especially if they move to another job or their manager moves on and they need to share the document with the new manager.

Example: West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership

West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership (WY&H HCP) (also known as an integrated care system) includes eight councils, six acute hospital trusts, three mental health trusts and two community trusts, as well as social enterprises and thousands of voluntary and community organisation partners. One in five of staff working in health and care is balancing work whilst providing unpaid care for a loved one. We knew that juggling work and caring can be difficult, emotional and stressful. Carers UK’s research found that it impacts on their health, finances and wellbeing and many left employment because of it.

We know our workforce is our greatest strength and we knew that we have to do something about caring for those who are unpaid carers.

One of our first steps was to engage hospital CEO’s as they have a large workforce working around the clock 365 days a year. We did this through presenting at various board meetings and working with Trust HR Directors.

Each hospital appointed a representative to lead, who alongside the project manager from WY&H HCP formed the Working Carers Project Team.

Wanting to ensure we took the best advice we utilised Carers UK and their Employers for Carers forum to seek out how to make this project successful. The EfC membership platform at efcdigital.org has lots of advice and guidance on how to not only implement a working carer’s passport but also create a culture which is fully supportive of working carers. It also has lots of really useful example resources that we could adapt and utilise. Using these resources we put together a plan. Each hospital trust then formed their own small project team made up of someone from each department that would be needed to roll this out successfully; one from HR, recruitment, communications team, health and wellbeing team and IT.

Each hospital team worked within their own trust with guidance from WY&H HCP Working Carers Project Team. We met regularly, shared good practice and overcame barriers together. It was actually relatively easy.

Within two months the first trust was ready to launch and others very soon followed. The trusts that implemented earlier started feeding back positive case stories from working carers that had been helped by the working carers passport. This reinforced the message that this was the right thing to do and spurned on other trusts.

“I am a carer to my mum with dementia and also have two teenagers. This last year has been particularly stressful for me and I have used both annual leave days and sickness to cope with looking after them. My manager said I could work some time back but when you are stressed and exhausted this is not always an option. It’s a very stressful time trying to work full time and having carer responsibilities. The passport has given me and my manager an opportunity to have a good discussion about my responsibilities and needs and what can be put in place to support me and the service”.    Clerical Officer

“I was signposted to the Carer Passport by a colleague. I live with and have caring responsibilities for my dad who is registered as partially sighted and has Multiple Myeloma. He is 78 years of age and, given the current Coronavirus guidance by the Government, he has been advised to self-isolate for 12 weeks. I currently work full time”.   Carer

“The Carer Passport has been useful as it helped me and my manager look at ways to help me without me feeling I was letting the service and colleagues down. I am now working 30 hours a week and my manager will rota me on around appointments when possible so I don’t have to use all my annual leave”.   Pharmacist

“I’m a carer for my son who has autism. I also work as a midwife. Combining the two is often impossible and I’ve often thought about leaving my job even though I love it. The Working Carer Passport is a godsend. It helped me to really think about where I could do with additional support and then I talked with my manager and we found things that would help. The fixed shifts have really made a difference and me and my son are much happier.”   NHS Midwife and working carer

We are also working closely with councils, and have recently worked with Wakefield Council to support their adoption of the carers passport. The wider unpaid carers programme board is made up of representatives across all sectors of the Partnership. Our key programmes of work also include supporting young carers. You can find out more at www.wyhpartnership.co.uk/our-priorities/unpaid-carers