Carers Week 2024 - Support across Defence

The 10^th to the 16^th of June marks 2024’s carers week. The week is an annual campaign to raise awareness of the responsibilities, challenges and positive impact that carers make. By highlighting what carers do, the hope is that more people realise that they are carers themselves and access much-needed support.

A carer is anyone, including children and adults, who looks after a family member, partner or friend – who needs help because of their illness, frailty, special educational needs and disabilities, mental health problem or addiction – and cannot cope without their support. The care they give is unpaid.

There is lots of support across Defence for those who are Carers. The Civil Service Carers Network provides a community of support for the various carer’s networks across the Civil Service to share knowledge and resources; promote a positive workplace culture for carers and act as a critical friend to the Civil Service develop and improve the support it provides to our Civil Servants who are carers.

Across Defence a Carers passport can be used to support those with caring responsibilities. The purpose of the passport is to enable a carer and their manager to hold a supportive conversation and document the flexibilities needed to support them in combining caring and work. It also supports you when moving roles and should be a living document that can be updated to reflect any changes to caring responsibilities.

Throughout the week, Carers UK and Defence are holding information sessions for those wishing to learn more about carers and the support that’s available and carers will be sharing their personal stories and experiences with blogs post throughout the week.