This years Carers Rights Day will take place on the 23rd November 2023.
As in previous years, the event will highlight the issues faced by working carers amongst others.
Working Carers
Carers Rights Day, as with Carers Week, is an annual campaign which takes place each year to raise awareness of the challenges faced by carers, including working carers.
In terms of working carers, Carers Rights Day will again focus upon highlighting the continuing problems that working carers have in terms of balancing their working lives with their caring responsibilities. Carers UK, for instance, point out that “As many as 7.7 million people in the UK now juggle their unpaid caring responsibilities with paid employment. Balancing work and care can be a real struggle, with many [working] carers saying they are tired, stressed and struggling to manage their own physical and mental health….[Working carers] urgently need more support to ensure they can remain in work, including a right to Carer’s Leave.“
Carer's Leave
Carers UK have campaigned for many years for a statutory right to paid Carer’s Leave. That campaign has recently succeeded in meeting some of the objectives wrapped up in that campaign, in that the Carer’s Leave Act 2023 received Royal Assent on the 24th May 2023. That legislation provides working carers with 1 week’s unpaid leave per annum.
Whilst Carers UK have welcomed the Carer’s Leave Act 2023, they would like the Government to go further. The Chief Executive of Carers UK, Helen Walker, stated: “In the longer term, we would like to see Carer’s Leave paid but...this [legislation is] a very important step in recognising and supporting carers in employment.“
Walker later added at the time that the legislation received Royal Assent: "This is a historic moment for unpaid carers and Carers UK’s decades-long campaign to improve working carers’ rights....The evidence is clear: being able to take leave from work to support an older, disabled or seriously ill relative makes a huge difference to carers’ lives and can help them stay in paid work....Being able to use Carer’s Leave will remove guilt for many workers needing to take some time out to care, or having to use their annual leave - their own rest time. There are big benefits for businesses too...[with]...reduced recruitment costs and improved staff retention and wellbeing."
Protected Characteristic
Another campaign that Carers UK are running to improve the position of working carers is to make caring the 10th protected characteristic under the Equality Act, as we highlighted in a previous article.
The only protection that working carers currently have under the Equality Act 2010 is under section 13, which covers discrimination by association. Carers UK contend that that only provides working carers with limited protection, arguing that whilst the “provision is important,…..the law is not clearly written and understandable. It is also not as direct as the nine protected characteristics which are clearly stated.“
Unpaid Care Valued At £445 million per day
Recent research conducted by Carers UK, in conjunction with Sheffield University, found "that unpaid carers in England and Wales contribute a staggering £445 million to the economy in England and Wales every day – that’s £162 billion per year.....equivalent to [the] NHS in England and Wales, which in 2020/21 received an estimated £164 billion in funding." These figures include working carers.
Commenting upon these findings, the Deputy Director of the Centre for Care at the University of Sheffield, Professor Matt Bennett, stated: "The economic contribution made by unpaid carers has increased by 29% in the last decade and paints a stark picture of the savings they make to health care budgets. Without unpaid carers, our health and social care systems would collapse. In fact, our work shows that people are providing more hours of unpaid care than ever before. We hope policy makers see the urgent need to act to support unpaid carers."
