Long Term Carers

Flexible Working Practices for Long Term Carers
Speech by Paul Burstow MP delivered to Speech to the Sutton & Merton PCT Carers and Employment Conference, The Holiday Inn, Sutton on Thu 15th Jun 2006

Every minute of every day four new carers start caring.

It could happen to any one of us, overnight. Three in five of us will become carers at some point in our lives. For many caring responsibilities will come during their working lives. And that's the challenge.

Taking on caring responsibilities should not force the carer to give up work. Doing so can set in motion a chain of events that ends up with the carer suffering from poorer health and poorer wealth.

The research evidence is compelling: caring can have a serious effect on both the psychological and physiological health.

For many carers of working age the consequences of giving up work can be huge. Quite apart from the compelling social reasons for more flexible employment practices there is also a powerful economic case.

Our economy is estimated to need a further 2.5 million people in the workforce over the next eight years. Currently there are 3 million carers in employment, but there are 4 million of working age.

One in five people have given up work to care. Once a carer has given up work it is harder to get back into work. The longer they are out of the workforce the less likely they are ever to return and more likely to be dependent on income support.

That is why I co-sponsored and helped to pilot onto the statute book the Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act 2004 and before that the Carers and Disabled Children Act.

The Carer Act 2004 extended the rights of carers pacing new duties on local authorities to take account of carer's wishes to work or undertake training when undertaking a carers assessment. But that is only part of the picture. Flexible working practices are essential to retain carers in the workforce.

Flexible because one size does not fit all, carers need different levels of support at different times. Any thing from access to a phone to check on a person, to leaving and start times that fit around hospital appointments.

Without this flexibility the pressure and stress on the carers can become unbearable, making them ill, driving them from the workplace.

A loss to the business in terms of knowledge, experience and training.

A loss to the economy in taxes, extra benefit payments.

Research suggests that employers who introduce more flexible working benefit. For example, a 26 per cent reduction in stress related absences.

So we have the Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act promoting a positive duty on local Councils facilitating carers working. But what about employers? Currently before Parliament is another Bill shortly to become an Act, the Work and Families Bill.

Clause 12 of the Bill extends the right to request flexible working beyond the Employment Relations Act 1999. It does not mandate employers to concede this but it does require proper consideration.

Clause 12 amends the Employment Rights Act and provides a power to make regulations. The question is what the regulations will say and in particular how carers are defined. The Government has consulted on two definitions. First, is a narrow definition restricting the provisions of the Act to 'close relatives' such as husbands, wives, someone living with you, father, mother, son, daughter - including in laws. Second is a 'near relative' definition which includes everyone in the first definition but adds grandparents, brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles.

I think good relation must be simple to implement - that means it should be easily understood. It makes sense to use an established definition of carers. To opt for a narrower 'close relative' definition would draw an arbitrary distinction that would lead to confusion and resentment in the workplace. Why should someone caring for their grandparents or a brother or a sister be treated differently?

I hope that the Government responds positively to the consultation and gets the definition right.

This new right comes into effect from April 2007. There is already plenty of good practice out these: flexible starting and finishing times; compressed working hours; annualised working hours; job sharing or part-time working; homeworking; term-time working.

To conclude we all owe a huge debt to carers; their contribution as carers has been estimated at £57 billion a year. Without them our health and social services would be unable to cope. But words are not enough. Providing carers with the opportunity to work makes good business sense. I hope today's conference proves a useful catalyst to encourage employers and carers alike