Working and caring initiative launched
Carers Australia has launched its new Work and Care initiative at a meeting of the Parliamentary Friends of Carers at Parliament House in Canberra.
Work and Care aims to improve the capacity of family and friend carers to combine employment with their caring responsibilities, and to assist long term carers on income support to transition into employment when their caring role ceases or is reduced.
Carers Australia chief executive, Ara Cresswell, says: “To remain competitive, businesses need to attract and retain skilled and committed employees.
“With a burgeoning ageing population underpinned by relatively fewer working age carers to provide informal care than we have been historically accustomed to, the failure to provide flexible working conditions and retain experienced workers will represent a significant loss of resources and knowledge to employers in addition to adding to the costs of social security payments,” she says.
“Carers Australia is not suggesting that all family and friend carers will be in a position to combine work and care. However, those carers who want to remain connected to the workforce and are in a position to do so, with adjustments to working conditions and some extra support services, should be able to.
“There is a strong business case backed up by solid evidence that offering flexible and innovative workplace arrangements, which allow employees to combine paid work with an unpaid caring role, enables businesses to foster a productive, efficient and effective workforce.”
Madeleine Starr MBE, director of Business Development and Innovation at Carers UK, spoke at the launch about Employers for Carers – an employer led initiative dedicated to encouraging and assisting employers to foster carer friendly workplaces.
Find out more information about Carer Australia's Work and Care initiative.
