For employers

Did you know?

Every 24 hours 10 families are told that their child has cancer. Diagnosis often comes as a complete shock. Treatment usually starts straightaway and can last up to three years. The financial strain can increase for families at this difficult time, with extra costs associated with travel, food, childcare and accommodation. And naturally, parents want to be at their child’s side.

Has your business got measures in place to cope in this situation?

An employee with a sick child may need to be absent for weeks. They may ask to take long periods off work. Some people even use their own sick or holiday leave, not knowing whether their employer can help them. Also they may be unsure when they can return to work. And they may feel anxious about their future job and prospects.

As an employer, it will be a time of uncertainty for you too. Things will change quickly not just for the employee, but the organisation and the team around them.

CLIC Sargent wants:

• To make employees aware of their rights.
• To ask employers to go further than their statutory obligations, so that parents have access to the full package of workplace rights that they need at this traumatic time.

A solution for your business:

As the UK’s leading children’s cancer charity, CLIC Sargent has put together a set of guidelines to help businesses.

Our guidelines are aimed at:

• Reducing uncertainty for your organisation.
• Making sure your organisation is ready to support employees.
• Minimising the impact on co-workers and the organisation as a whole.

Specifically, CLIC Sargent has developed a Carer’s Policy which offers employers an example of best practice. We invite you to adapt it for your organisation. There is an example of a "gold standard" policy to download below.

Two good reasons to act now:

1. Stay competitive

All these are increasingly important factors in attracting new employees and retaining valued existing staff, in a competitive recruitment environment. Implementing a carers policy to support parents of children with cancer will also give your organisation a hugely favourable image externally.

In contrast, when parents have to leave their place of employment permanently, this inevitably incurs recruitment costs, loss of expertise, and can impact on team morale.

2. Meet legal obligations

Parents of disabled children aged under 18 now have the statutory right to apply to work flexibly under the Work and Families Act 2006. But many parents don’t know about this right, and some are refused flexible working arrangements when their child is diagnosed with cancer.

For further information

To tell us about the work your organisation is doing to support parents caring for their child with cancer, or to discover more about CLIC Sargent's campaign, please contact the campaigns team on 020 8572 2888 or email: campaigns@clicsargent.org.uk