PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Department for International Development: Carers (15 June 2020)

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will place in the Library a list of the workplace benefits that her Department provides to its staff with caring responsibilities.

Asked by:
Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat)

DFID encourages managers to take a positive, proactive approach in working together with employees to agree arrangements for caring, taking account of both caring and business needs. DFID has signed up to the Carer’s Charter and encourage managers and employees to record caring arrangements on our HR systems.

In terms of workplace benefits, DFID offers:

• Flexible working to enable carers to combine their work and caring responsibilities. For those looking to move to working on a job share basis, we also promote use of the Civil Service job-share finder.

• Access to various forms of leave for those who need it over and above annual leave (either on a short or longer term basis): short term discretionary leave; long term unpaid discretionary leave; parental leave.

• Employee Assistance Programme: offers support for a range of scenarios. For caring, they can advise on sources of help and advice and provide counselling should people require it.

To strengthen our support and learn from best practice, we have also recently signed up to Employers for Carers.

Answered by:
Nigel Adams (Conservative)
22 June 2020