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Supporting carers

Support, advice and guidance on caring issues

Currently in Leeds, there are around 74,000 unpaid carers. A carer is someone who, without payment, provides help and support to a parent, partner, child, relative, friend or neighbour who could not manage without their help. 

This could be due to age, physical or mental health issues, substance misuse or disability. Help provided by Carers could include personal care such as helping them get dressed or administering medication, or could be supporting them with day to day tasks such as shopping or managing money.

For working carers managing the dual pressures of work and home life can be difficult and without support, carers may suffer from stress and/or exhaustion or may simply give up work all together.

At Leeds Beckett, we want to ensure that all colleagues can thrive at work by offering access to support, raising awareness and establishing a culture of support. 

 

Starting a conversation

Often working carers might not recognise themselves as a working carer. The support they provide is just doing what they need to do for someone they care about. However, over time trying to juggle existing workloads and responsibilities alongside caring roles at home, can feel difficult.  By having open conversations with your line manager about your caring situation, it may be possible to make adjustments to your role to make managing your work and caring responsibilities easier.

To help start these conversations, you may want to complete your own Working Carers Action Plan. It has been designed to help you articulate your caring responsibilities and highlight how aspects of your role may be negatively impacting on your ability to support your loved ones or vice versa (i.e.- working hours making it tricky to attend appointments.) By completing the form and sharing with your manager in a 1-2-1 setting, this may help open up a conversation about any adjustments that may be possible to help you manage your responsibilities. Once completed and if kept up to date, the action plan can be a helpful document to use when you experience a change in role or line manager, to reduce the need to start the conversation from scratch and share details of existing adjustments. If you feel you would benefit from speaking to someone for further advice, please contact us at employeerelations@leedsbeckett.ac.uk. 

 
here for you

peer support network

Other times it can be helpful to be around people who have some understanding of how you are feeling. Our carer’s network is an informal peer support network, meeting in a virtual safe space where colleagues with caring responsibilities of any nature are able to come together, listen to each other, share their experiences and connect.

All meetings will take place via MS Teams.

I've been caring for relatives with a range of illnesses, on top of full time work and professional studies, since 2001. I hadn’t thought of myself as a carer until a colleague in Wellbeing, with whom I’d been chatting about work v’s life, asked if I would be interested in joining a group that they were hoping to set up for Leeds Beckett staff with caring responsibilities. For me, a carer was formal or paid assistance, not just family pulling together when times were tough. As I heard more about it, I realised I was actually a carer and so decided to join.

The Carers’ Network was great. It provided a safe space to share experiences with colleagues who understood and didn't judge, as well as signposting to external services. Although work can be an escape, a bit of structure amidst the chaos, you sometimes need real support - to which you're entitled and without an unnecessary battle to get it. When you're already physically and mentally tired, you don't need that on top of everything else you’re helping your loved ones through.

To ensure that you have access to expert advice when you need it, Leeds Beckett has an existing relationship with local charity, Carer’s Leeds.  Carer’s Leeds are available for anyone with caring responsibilities and their website is full of advice and information about what support is available for carer’s living and working in Leeds. As part of our relationship with them, our colleagues have access to 1-2-1 advice sessions with a member of the Carer’s Leeds Team on request. To request a session, please contact us at equality@leedsbeckett.ac.uk.

When trying to juggle a professional career and care for a loved one, it can be difficult to juggle competing responsibilities, and even harder to find time to look after your own wellbeing. At Leeds Beckett we have a number of resources available to help you find a better balance.

Our new approach to flexible working enables colleagues and managers to informally agree flexible working patterns, like many have been doing during the lockdown period. To find out more about the Flexible working policy or the employee guidance please visit the HR A-Z webpage.

We also recognise that as a working carer, there will be times when you are needed unexpectedly at short notice. We do not expect that you would need to take this as absence or as annual leave, this is where our special leave policy comes in. Find out more about our Special leave policy by visiting the HR A-Z webpage.

Trying to manage multiple responsibilities, alongside the general ups and downs of day to day life can have a huge impact on your levels of wellbeing. Whether you are getting used to life as a working carer due to a recent event or diagnosis, or whether long term juggling of responsibilities is taking its toll, we have resources available on our colleague wellbeing webpages to help you. 

If you are in need of immediate emotional support or advice, our employee assistance programme run by Health Assured have a 24 hour helpline available for you to access when you need it.

As a working carer, a common feeling is that you are never able to give your full attention to whatever it is you are doing. With competing responsibilities at work and in your personal life, it can lead to feelings of guilt, and ‘am I doing enough?’ 

As a manager, by creating a work environment where colleagues feel they have permission to work flexibly and give attention to their loved one when needed this can make a huge difference. By listening to the colleague’s situation and helping them to find a working pattern/style that meets their needs as well as the teams, this can help to remove some of the pressure. The Flexible working policy and guidance, which can be found on the HR A-Z webpage, will help you to understand what adjustments may be feasible. If you feel you would benefit from speaking to someone for further advice, please contact us at employeerelations@leedsbeckett.ac.uk.

 

There may be times as a manager that you notice a member of your team, doesn’t seem themselves. When someone is struggling, they may not feel able to articulate how they feel or ask for help. Our Wellbeing Conversations - A Guide for Managers has been created to help managers across the University feel more confident about initiating a conversation if they have concerns about a member of their team's wellbeing. 
It's designed to help managers: 

  • Identify the signs that a member of their team might benefit from a wellbeing conversation.
  • Plan a conversation, including how to get started and how to encourage the member of their team to take positive actions for their own wellbeing.
  • Ask open questions which will prompt reflection and useful discussion.
  • Be aware of potential issues which might arise and to decide how they could handle these.

If you feel you would benefit from speaking to someone for further advice, please contact us at employeerelations@leedsbeckett.ac.uk

To ensure that you have access to expert advice when you need it, Leeds Beckett has an existing relationship with local charity, Carer’s Leeds.  Carer’s Leeds are available for anyone with caring responsibilities and their website is full of advice and information about what support is available for carer’s living and working in Leeds. As part of our relationship with them, our colleagues have access to 1-2-1 advice sessions with a member of the Carer’s Leeds Team on request. To request a session, please contact us at equality@leedsbeckett.ac.uk.

When trying to juggle a professional career and care for a loved one, it can be difficult to juggle competing responsibilities, and even harder to find time to look after your own wellbeing. At Leeds Beckett we have a number of resources available to help you find a better balance.

Our new approach to flexible working enables colleagues and managers to informally agree flexible working patterns, like many have been doing during the lockdown period. To find out more about the Flexible working policy or the employee guidance please visit the HR A-Z webpage.

We also recognise that as a working carer, there will be times when you are needed unexpectedly at short notice. We do not expect that you would need to take this as absence or as annual leave, this is where our special leave policy comes in. Find out more about our Special leave policy by visiting the HR A-Z webpage.

Trying to manage multiple responsibilities, alongside the general ups and downs of day to day life can have a huge impact on your levels of wellbeing. Whether you are getting used to life as a working carer due to a recent event or diagnosis, or whether long term juggling of responsibilities is taking its toll, we have resources available on our colleague wellbeing webpages to help you. 

If you are in need of immediate emotional support or advice, our employee assistance programme run by Health Assured have a 24 hour helpline available for you to access when you need it.

As a working carer, a common feeling is that you are never able to give your full attention to whatever it is you are doing. With competing responsibilities at work and in your personal life, it can lead to feelings of guilt, and ‘am I doing enough?’ 

As a manager, by creating a work environment where colleagues feel they have permission to work flexibly and give attention to their loved one when needed this can make a huge difference. By listening to the colleague’s situation and helping them to find a working pattern/style that meets their needs as well as the teams, this can help to remove some of the pressure. The Flexible working policy and guidance, which can be found on the HR A-Z webpage, will help you to understand what adjustments may be feasible. If you feel you would benefit from speaking to someone for further advice, please contact us at employeerelations@leedsbeckett.ac.uk.

 

There may be times as a manager that you notice a member of your team, doesn’t seem themselves. When someone is struggling, they may not feel able to articulate how they feel or ask for help. Our Wellbeing Conversations - A Guide for Managers has been created to help managers across the University feel more confident about initiating a conversation if they have concerns about a member of their team's wellbeing. 
It's designed to help managers: 

  • Identify the signs that a member of their team might benefit from a wellbeing conversation.
  • Plan a conversation, including how to get started and how to encourage the member of their team to take positive actions for their own wellbeing.
  • Ask open questions which will prompt reflection and useful discussion.
  • Be aware of potential issues which might arise and to decide how they could handle these.

If you feel you would benefit from speaking to someone for further advice, please contact us at employeerelations@leedsbeckett.ac.uk

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Leeds Beckett University recognises the importance of supporting colleagues with caring responsibilities. Please join the mailing list to receive invitations to upcoming events.

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Resources

  • Occupational Health
  • Dignity and Respect Network - a network of trained staff available to discuss and support any aspect of behaviour that causes concern. Able to provide comprehensive impartial advice, options and information on our policies and current legislation
  • Mediation Service - informal means of resolving conflict between individuals or groups, providing a platform for a safe, comprehensive discussion between those experiencing conflict
  • Mindfulness Sessions - free mindfulness sessions available to staff and students. If interested in attending please contact us at studentwellbeing@leedsbeckett.ac.uk
  • Free legal advice is available to colleagues through the Leeds Law School Law Clinic

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