Trust celebrated as being Carer Confident

The Trust has successfully been awarded the Carer Confident benchmark of Level 2 Accomplished.

The award recognises that the Trust has support in place to help carers identify themselves in the workplace, includes carers in the development of policies and processes to support carers within the workplace, and has well documented policies and guidance in place which cover caring and carers.

It also acknowledges the Trust’s commitment to providing a range of practical support for carers in the workplace, communicating support available for carers throughout the organisation, and enabling carers to feel comfortable in accessing available support both from within and outside the organisation.

The Trust has a staff carers network which was founded in November 2020 to support staff in both their caring and professional roles. The Trust’s network applied for the accreditation, demonstrating the work they have done in empowering staff carers and raising awareness across the Trust.

The benchmark is awarded by Employers for Carers, which was launched in 2019 as an employers’ membership forum. Employers for Carers now has over 215 member organisations across the public, private and voluntary sectors.

There are three levels of the Carer Confident award – level 1 (active), level 2 (accomplished), and level 3 (ambassador).

Paul Brown, HR business partner at the Trust, said: “As a Trust we recognise the valuable role carers play in looking after someone. Over the last few years we have done a lot of work to ensure working carers get the right support, including launching our commitment to carers and our carers’ passport. We’re really proud to receive this award demonstrating our ongoing work to make sure the needs of working carers are met and that they feel supported in their caring role.”