Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps the Government is taking to (a) understand and (b) tackle the issues that (i) carers and (ii) parents face in (A) retaining, (B) entering and (C) progressing in work.

(i) Carers

The Government is committed to supporting carers to provide care as they would wish, and to do so in a way that takes account of their own health and wellbeing, access to education, employment and life chances.

Our Call for Evidence on carers in 2016 highlighted the practical challenges of balancing work and caring responsibilities. In June 2018 we published an action plan setting out a cross-government programme of targeted work to support carers over the next two years. That includes action to support employers to improve working practices and flexible working and to help carers to stay in work and return to work, as well as improving advice on financial support.

(ii) Parents

The Government has taken numerous actions to help people balance work and family. We have introduced 30 hours of free childcare for working parents of 3- and 4-year olds and we are giving working parents more help with the costs of childcare. Under the Coalition Government we also extended the right to request flexible working to all employees and introduced shared parental leave and pay: evaluation of both changes is ongoing.

At Spring Budget 2017, the Government committed £5m to supporting parents and careers back into work following a career break for caring. The Government has commissioned research to identify the barriers to both carers and parents in returning to work following a break for caring. We are seeking to tackle those through encouraging employers to set up supportive, flexible returner opportunities.