Employed Carers and Family-Friendly Employment Policies

by Crompton, Rosemary

• ISBN13: 9781861344809
• ISBN10: 1861344805
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-04-01
• Publisher: Policy Pr

Summary

Employers are placing increasing significance on human resources policies designed to enable their employees to achieve an improved work-life balance. This report outlines how employees and managers in three sectors - banking, grocery retail and local authorities - have experienced the "family-friendly employment" options available in their place of work in the UK. The research illustrates individual experiences of family-friendly employment policies in similar workplaces in two contrasting localities: East Kent and South Yorkshire. It also looks at workplace experiences in the context of the local services available to support employees with caring responsibilities. The report, published in association with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, will be of interest to human resources managers, trade unions, policymakers in government, employers' organizations, and to researchers and social scientists interested in the relationship between work and family life. It gives new insight into the b

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	iv
Introduction and background	1	(2)
The research	1	(1)
Outline of the report	2	(1)
Caring and employment in two localities	3	(7)
The localities	3	(1)
The family life course, employment and caring	3	(2)
The organisations	5	(1)
The respondents	6	(1)
Caring for children	7	(1)
Caring for older people	8	(1)
Concluding summary	9	(1)
Employers and family-friendly employment policies	10	(8)
Formal policies	10	(1)
Managers' awareness of policies	11	(1)
Implementation of policies	12	(4)
The business case for family-friendly employment policies	16	(1)
Concluding summary	17	(1)
Caring and the experiences of employees	18	(10)
Employers and help with caring	18	(3)
How the carers managed	21	(2)
Experiences of those with childcare responsibilities	23	(1)
Carers of older people and/or people with disabilities: flexibility, discretion, reciprocity	24	(2)
Multiple carers	26	(1)
Limits to combining employment and caring	27	(1)
Concluding summary	27	(1)
Infrastructures of care support and examples of good practice	28	(9)
Changing national policy in support of carers	28	(1)
Local care infrastructure: support available to carers in Sheffield and Canterbury	29	(7)
Concluding summary	36	(1)
Conclusions	37	(3)
Policy implications	38	(2)
References	40