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Employment support for carers - key findings from a University of Kent report

Researchers at the universities of Kent and Edinburgh have published the results of a study on what employment support is needed for carers in order for them to take up or remain in work.

The research, which was commissioned by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), aimed to investigate how caring responsibilities affect people's decisions about employment, and to assess how DWP and Jobcentre Plus (JCP) can effectively help claimants with caring responsibilities who want to work to return to the labour market.

The study interviewed people caring for adults or disabled children, and found that caring places restrictions on the amount and type of paid work they can undertake: it may limit the hours they are available for work, how far from home they are prepared to travel and it impacts upon job mobility and career planning. Many of the carers interviewed for this research stressed the importance of work for financial, social and personal satisfaction reasons, but in practice combining working and caring was far from easy.

Carers obtained support from a wide range of formal and informal sources: the NHS, social services, voluntary organisations, family and friends as well the Department for Work and Pensions. There was a general sense of the fragmented nature of the support system available for carers and a strong desire for a single port of call for advice and help. There was a widespread feeling, either through direct experience or hearsay that the JCP environment was unwelcoming and this was linked to the sense that carers were not really understood; that there were no specialists or experts on caring in the JCP offices. The issue of expertise is now being addressed with specialist training for JCP Advisors who deal with carers.

A few respondents reported that employers demonstrated an active approach to supporting employees who were carers. It was more typical though for there to be no specific policies for carers and little awareness of what the needs of a carer might be. It was up to the carer to ask for help if it was needed and many carers felt it was their individual responsibility to manage the balance between work and caring and hence made few demands on their employers. In many cases were reluctant to divulge their circumstances which led to tensions and feelings of guilt.

One of the key elements that facilitated the ability to work and care was work related flexibility; this took a number of different forms: part-time work, flexitime, shift working or term-time working. However, this formal flexibility was not necessarily sufficient. It often needed to be reinforced by 'informal' flexibility, namely the willingness of line-managers or co-workers to accommodate shift changes or early or late arrivals according to the fluctuating and sometimes unpredictable demands of caring. In many cases the needs of the carers were very modest, e.g. the ability to make and receive telephone conversations at work could make a huge difference.

Sarah Vickerstaff, Professor of Work and Employment at the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, University of Kent, said: 'It is a safe assumption, given current demographic trends and developments in medical care, that the demand for informal care will increase in the coming decades and that the challenge of how to effectively support carers to continue working and/or facilitate their return to work will become increasingly important. Removing the barriers to employment for carers will require action on a number of different fronts and by a range of stakeholders including government, employers and the social and health services.'

Employment Support for Carers (DWP Research Report Number 597) by Sarah Vickerstaff, Wendy Loretto, Alisoun Milne, Elaine Alden, Jenny Billings and Phil White is published as part of the DWP Research Report series.

A copy of the report (and summary of the research) can be downloaded from: http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/rrs-index.asp

Contact: mediaoffice@kent.ac.uk

Story published at 11:13am 23 September 2009