Should the government give carers the right to paid leave?

The Carer’s Leave Act 2023 came into force in April 2024 and allows employees in England, Scotland, and Wales to take up to one week of unpaid leave per year to care for a relative or dependant with a long-term care need.

A new report: The Carer's Leave Act 2023: six months on considers what employers are doing to support staff who are caring for a dependant and analyses whether the new legislation is having a positive impact on the people it was designed to help. 

How many employers have added carer's leave to their suite of employment policies? 

The findings set out in the report are based on responses from 164 employers. That's a relatively small sample size, so it's important to not get too carried away with its conclusions. That said, it's a very interesting report and its findings are worth reading.

The report reveals that 51% of organisations now have a dedicated carer’s leave policy compared to 23% who had one in place before the law changed. Four percent were still in the process of implementing the Act and 1% didn't know whether their organisation had taken any steps to comply with the law. 

Additionally, 44% of organisations go further than the law requires and have increased the number of days carer's can take and/or pay them when they take carer's leave.  

How many people are carers and are they taking time off to meet their caring responsibilities? 

Only 51% of surveyed organisations monitor how many of their employees are carers, with the most common proportion being 6-10% of the workforce. And 65% of employers track how many employees use their carer’s leave entitlement, with an average of 3% of employees using it since the Act was implemented.

In addition: 

• 56% of organisations say that they haven't seen an increase in carers asking them for support. To put this in context, 26% of organisations who have a specific dedicated carer’s leave policy in place reported an increase in carers coming forward to take leave compared with 18% of organisations whose carer’s leave policy sits within other policies
• 56% of carer's can't afford to take unpaid leave; and 
• Only 37% of organisations believe that the Act has improved understanding and awareness of the challenges unpaid carers face who are also juggling paid work

Recommendations for employers and the government

The report recommends that employers should support working carers by: 

• introducing paid carer's leave [it wants the government to introduce a statutory right to paid carer's leave before the end of the current parliament]
• creating dedicated carer’s leave policies where they are more visible
• tracking the number of employees who have caring responsibilities and monitoring if they take carer's leave or have flexible working arrangements
• training managers about carers’ rights and promoting carer support networks; and
• joining the Employers for Carers membership forums and to becoming Carer Confident through their benchmarking scheme.

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