Many people look after someone else but do not realise they are carers. If you help someone regularly because of illness, frailty, disability, a mental health problem or an addiction and they cannot manage without your support, then you are a carer.
The care you give is unpaid and could range from full time to a couple of hours a week. Around 25% of our employees carry out a caring role alongside their jobs.
Leave options
Carers may also be eligible to use different types of leave to help with caring responsibilities.
Carers leave
You can take up to 5 days' (pro rata if you work part-time) unpaid leave per year to provide or arrange care for a dependant with long-term health care needs.
A dependant includes a:
- parent
- spouse or partner
- child
- person who lives with your family
- person who relies on you as their main carer
A long-term health care need means that your dependant:
- has an illness or injury (either physical or mental) which requires, or is likely to require care, for three months or more, or
- is disabled under the Equality Act 2010, or
- requires care due to old age
This leave allowance can be taken in a single block, in whole days or as half days.
You should give your manager as much notice as possible (usually no less than twice the amount of time being requested as leave). Your manager may need to postpone your leave for up to one month if the time off would cause significant disruption to our services.
Record your leave in My Oracle under ‘Unpaid leave’ as ‘Carer’s leave – unpaid’.
Emergency care
If you need to deal with an emergency involving someone who relies on you as their main carer, you can take unpaid dependants leave.
Unpaid parental leave
If you’re a parent, you can take up to 18 weeks’ unpaid parental leave before your child is 18 years old.
Dependant serious illness or injury
If your loved one is seriously ill or injured, you may be entitled to take up to 10 days' paid compassionate leave.
Other leave choices
Depending on the situation, you may be able to request compassionate leave.
You can find out more about your entitlement in our family friendly leave and pay guide.
Flexible working
You can request a flexible working pattern to help you balance your caring and work responsibilities.
Flexible working could be for a short period of time to deal with a temporary increase in caring responsibilities, which you can discuss with your manager as workstyle personalisation. Workstyle personalisation is our informal approach to flexibility arrangements that may be agreed with your manager to suit your individual circumstances.
If you need a more permanent change to your working pattern or to reduce your working hours, you can make a formal flexible working request.
Managers will consider flexible working requests and try to accommodate them as much as possible.
Find out more about requesting flexible working.
Support for carers
Caring for someone can be demanding in many different ways. Check what support and benefits are available to help you and the person you care for.