Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will place in the Library a list of the workplace benefits that his Department provides to its staff with caring responsibilities.

The Department for Education provides the following workplace benefits to its staff with caring responsibilities:

• A Flexible Working Policy which enables employees with caring responsibilities to achieve a more effective work/life balance. Flexible working offers a wide range of working patterns, for example: informal flexible working, part-time working, or remote/home working.
• The DfE Carers Charter sets out the policies and helps managers to understand how they can best support employees with caring responsibilities.
• A Special Leave Policy that offers a variation of leave which can be requested by employees who are carers: up to 5 days special leave with pay for domestic emergencies, statutory emergency leave for dependants, extended unplanned special leave
• Career breaks which can be requested for a variety of reasons, including caring for dependants.

For the past five years the DfE has supported a Carers’ Support Network for its employees with a caring role. This group of volunteers provide emotional and practical support to carers as well as working to influence DfE HR Policy.

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