Supporting Parents and Carers

Balancing work with parenting and caring responsibilities

Many Usdaw members are juggling paid jobs with caring for someone, whether this be children, parents or a family member. Whilst this can be a very rewarding experience, it can also be hugely demanding and can be one of the most difficult issues members face.

About this campaign

Usdaw campaigns for improved rights for parents and carers, and provide resources to inform members and reps about their existing rights, including accessing time-off and financial support through tax credits and other in-work benefits.

Each year, we run a spotlight day to focus on a particular issue, providing briefings and materials to help reps and activists organise a campaign event in their store.

This year’s Supporting Parents and Carers campaign took place on Wed 26 June 2024.

How to support the campaign

Get involved on ‘Supporting Parents and Carers’ Spotlight Day – Read the briefing
Order your campaign materials
Take the survey
Share your story - If you're a carer, help us raise awareness by sharing your story. Contact the magazine team at [email protected]
Display our ‘Stand up for carers’ poster on your workplace noticeboard

Parents and Carers Spotlight Day - Wed 26 June 2024

Our campaign Spotlight Day this year has the theme 'Stand up for Carers', with the aim of the day being to recognise the huge contribution that unpaid carers make to society and to let carers know that Usdaw is on their side.

This year Usdaw used Spotlight Day to:

Raise awareness of the rights carers have at work.
Highlight the impact on carers’ incomes of the cost of living crisis and the additional costs of caring.
Find out more about the problems members have juggling paid work with their unpaid care commitments.
Campaign for improvements to the new right to carer's leave, including for it to be paid.

What we've achieved so far

From 6 April 2024, employees will have a statutory right to a week’s unpaid leave to care for a dependant. The carer’s leave regulations allow up to five days off each year to provide care for people who are elderly, are disabled or have an illness or injury lasting more than three months.

Employees using the leave must take a minimum of half a working day at a time; a working day meaning the employee’s usual working pattern. There is no need for the leave to be used on consecutive days, so that could be five separate days over a 12-month rolling period.

However, Usdaw believes this still doesn't go far enough and the leave needs to be paid.