Your Rights

The right to ask your GP practice to identify you as a carer.

Why should you tell your GP that you are a carer?

Caring can take its toll on an individual’s health and wellbeing, and it is important to tell your GP so that they can support your health needs and work with you to address the health needs of the person you care for.

The types of support could include:

¶ Appropriate health support to prevent avoidable illness, including free flu vaccinations, health checks and mental health screening.

¶ Accessible appointments that make it easier for a carer and the person with care needs to attend, including virtual, double and home appointments.

¶ A dedicated carers lead you can contact.

¶ With consent in place, the sharing of medical information of the cared for with the carer including any developments on the condition or treatments.

All GPs should be recording on their systems whether a patient is caring for someone.

Even if the person you care for is not a patient at the same GP surgery, you should still let your GP know. If they are a patient at the same surgery, the surgery can link your records together and understand your needs more fully.

Your GP can identify you as a carer on your patient record, which may help you fall into a priority group for vaccines and other public health campaigns.

Ways you can inform your GP you are a carer

Speak to the GP receptionist
Call your GP
E-mail / write to your GP

You can use the following points to guide the communication with the GP surgery:

Ask if there is a carers lead. If the surgery does not have one then let the person on reception know your situation and seek their advice.
Tell them you are an unpaid carer and would like to be added to their carers register and if there is any offer of extra support to carers.

Requesting a carer’s assessment

If you’re over 18 and provide regular unpaid care for someone, you’re entitled to a carer’s assessment – it doesn’t matter how much or what sort of care you provide.

The Carer Assessment aims to understand the impact of caregiving on your physical, emotional, and mental well-being. Additionally, it seeks to identify the services and support that would benefit you as a caregiver. It is also an opportunity to discuss your willingness and ability to continue providing care.

You can read more about the service here

Being consulted when the person you care for is discharged from hospital

The Health and Care Act 2022 means that NHS hospital Trusts in England have a duty to ensure that unpaid carers are involved as soon as feasible when plans for the patient’s discharge are being made. This applies to all carers of adults needing care and support following hospital discharge.

It is important to notify the hospital at the earliest stage possible if you are the carer or planning to care for them in future, so that the relevant healthcare team can make sure you are involved in the process and any plans around their continuing care after leaving hospital.

Our Hospital Team at Carers Support work closely with the NHS and social care professionals to ensure that carers are recognised and referred for support. The teams will focus on discharge planning and ensure carers are support to access services following hospital discharge.

The right (and choice) to request a free flu jab

If you are a carer, you may be eligible for the flu vaccine if you are the main carer of someone who is elderly or disabled and who would be at risk if you got sick, or you receive a carer’s allowance. You should let your GP or pharmacy know this when you arrive for your flu vaccine.

The right to unpaid leave from your employment.

The Carer’s Leave Act 2023 came into effect on the 6^thof April 2024. This piece of legislation allows employees to take one week’s (a week is defined by your contract with your employer) unpaid leave per year if providing or arranging care for someone with a long-term care need. Available from the first day of employment, can be taken flexibly, i.e. in half or full days.

Time off for an emergency.

This leave allowance is intended for planned and foreseen caring commitments. However, employees do have the legal right to take time off to deal with an emergency. Some examples of emergency are:

Usual care arrangements have broken down
Death of a dependant
Dependant has been involved in an accident
The need to deal with an incident involving a child during school hours.

The right to request flexible working

The flexible working Act 2023 gives employees the right to ask their employer for flexible working from day one of employment. Flexibility in working hours could help balance work and caring. A flexible working pattern could even be the difference between continuing to work and care and leaving work to care. Examples of flexible working include flexi-time, homeworking, job sharing or compressed hours.

Protection against discrimination or harassment

The Equality Act 2010 is a law aimed at stopping discrimination and helping to encourage equality. This legislation protects you against direct discrimination or harassment because of your caring responsibilities.

You’re already protected from discrimination and harassment if they happen at work. This law will protect you if you are caring for a disabled person when you:

shop for goods
ask for services
get services
use facilities like public transport.

Direct discrimination: is where you’re treated less favourably than someone else because you’re caring for an elderly or disabled person. Examples include:

discouraging you from using a service because you care for someone who is disabled.
making it impossible for you to use a facility because you look after someone who is disabled.
providing you with a worse service than someone else who isn’t caring for a disabled person.

Harassment

The Equality Act 2010 also protects you against harassment. Harassment is unwanted behaviour related to, say, disability or age. It hurts your pride or creates an intimidating, degrading, or offensive environment for you. It might be deliberate, or someone could be harassing you even if they don’t mean to or realise they are doing so.

For example, a carer for their disabled husband, who is a wheelchair user. The carer is trying to buy something in a shop, however, the shop assistant makes rude remarks about wheelchair users to her colleague, which the carer finds offensive and upsetting. There may be cause for a claim of harassment related to disability, even though the carer is not disabled.

Free legal advice

If you would like free legal advice in this area, Disability Law Service is a charity which supports all disabled people and their carers – from all backgrounds, faiths and ethnicities.

More information can be found here (please note, this service is not endorsed by CSWS)