Carers Week Special (Part 1): Lived experiences, the law and the role of employers, with Rachel Pears and Zahra Lakhan-Bunbury

Welcome to The Work Couch, the podcast where we discuss all things employment.

This year's Carers week theme is "caring about equality" and highlights the inequalities faced by unpaid carers, including a greater risk of poverty, social isolation, and poor mental and physical health. Sadly, and far too often, carers of all ages are missing out on opportunities in their education, careers or personal lives just because of their caring role.

To explore how employers play a critical role in removing these barriers, host Ellie Gelder is joined by two passionate advocates for carers: RPC's own Rachel Pears and Zahra Lakhan-Bunbury from Carers UK.

Rachel is associate director for responsible business and employment counsel at RPC, and is a carer herself. Last year, she spearheaded RPC's collaboration with Carers UK, which culminated in the Mind the Caring Gap report, which garnered widespread press attention.

Zahra, who is an account manager at Employers for Carers, the workplace arm of Carers UK, works with leading organisations including government departments, retailers and local authorities to identify and share best practice for supporting carers in the workplace.

In part 1 of this series, Rachel and Zahra discuss:

• Their own experiences of caring and the impact on their respective personal and working lives;
• Existing statutory entitlements to time off work for carers, including the Carer's Leave Act 2023, which came into force on 6 April 2024;
• How an increasing number of employers are offering enhanced time off for their employees with caring responsibilities;
• The human and commercial reasons for employers to actively engage with this issue; and
• Why we need to be mindful when using the word 'resilience'.

Join us for Part 2 on 25 June, when we will look at the intersectional nuances of caring, the impact of caring on wellbeing, and how to create carer-friendly workplaces.

* Please note these podcasts will not run on Internet Explorer

We hope you enjoyed this episode. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify to stay up to date with all the latest episodes. All information is correct at the time of recording. The Work Couch is not a substitute for legal advice.

References

1. Mind the caring gap: Exploring the impact of caring responsibilities in the legal sector (Report by RPC, LawCare and Next 100 Years, June 2024)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.