Disability Huntingdonshire (DISH) has been awarded Caring Together’s Carer Friendly Tick Award – Employers, in recognition of their work to identify and support carers who are part of their workplace.
DISH provides information, advice and support for people with disabilities and older people. This is the second award, the charity has received, as they recently renewed their Carer Friendly Tick Award – Communities with us.
The Carer Friendly Tick Award – Employers was decided by a panel of carers who assessed the submission on behalf of Caring Together.
Tracy Hyland, chief executive officer at DISH said, ‘We originally applied for the Carer Friendly Tick Award – Employer, as although a small organisation, most of our team had caring responsibilities and we wanted to ensure they were fully supported.
“As we have grown as an organisation, 80% of our team are carers, and have direct lived experience of the challenges working carers face. It is our role to support them to be able to work and care and not have to make that choice between working and caring.”
Jill Nooj, awareness and voice delivery lead at Caring Together, said, “DISH have continued to identity and support carers within their workforce. Carers can face many challenges when juggling work with their caring responsibilities, having an understanding and supportive employer that can offer flexibility can make a huge difference. Thank you for creating a carer friendly workplace!”
The panel of carers who assessed the submission were impressed by the range of work being done to identify and support staff and volunteers who are caring for a family member or friend.
The work includes the charity having;
• a chief executive officer that is also a carers champion
• flexible working and carers leave policies
• information about unpaid carers on their website.
The Carer Friendly Tick Award was originally developed for education by young carers from Caring Together’s Norfolk Young Carers Forum (NYCF) project. The success of this meant the awards have been rolled out across Norfolk, Peterborough and Cambridgeshire and now includes community, health and employer organisations. The awards recognise the important role organisations must play in ensuring carers of all ages are recognised and given the support they need.
For more information about the Carer Friendly Tick Awards and how your organisation can support carers see caringtogether.org/carer-friendly-tick or email [email protected]
