Renfrewshire Council

Congratulations to our People and Organisational Development and Internal Communications teams for this latest accolade from Carer Positive in recognition of their work to help colleagues with caring responsibilities identify themselves and access support. 

Head of People and Organisational Development, Raymond Cree said:

"Winning this award is a ringing endorsement of all the hard work that's gone in to identifying and supporting our unpaid working carers. It's part of how we live our values, ensuring we are fair, empathetic and that we uphold the dignity of those going through some of life's most difficult experiences.

"When we launched our revised Carers Policy earlier this year, helping colleagues with caring responsibilities to identify themselves and get to know their rights was a key focus and is still extremely important to us. I'm delighted that these efforts are paying off and I'd like to thank everyone involved in successfully delivering this ongoing programme of support."

Carer Positive is a Scottish Government initiative, developed in partnership with private, public and voluntary sector organisations to raise awareness of the challenges facing working carers, and encourages employers to understand the business benefits of supporting those staff. 

Carer Positive judges highlighted the fantastic work across the council:

"The wide range of mechanisms this organisation uses to encourage and enable carers to identify themselves is really impressive. These include a Carers Register, a Carers Passport, and an annual employee survey which is conducted as part of Carers Week each year. 

"A variety of communications channels are also used to raise awareness across all staff teams, including newsletter articles; a Chief Executive Blog; and 'RenTalks' on what an unpaid working carer is. All helping colleagues recognise and identify themselves as carers, which we know is so vitally important to ensuring they get the support they need.

"Particularly notable in reaching frontline staff [who are] less connected to online messaging, is the poster campaign containing QR codes which take employees to the 'Council staff with caring responsibilities' webpage where they can find the carers Policy and wider support available to them". 

Reflecting on this well-deserved recognition, organisational development advisor, Fiona Sinclair, said: "We were so happy to have been shortlisted as a finalist for this award and humbled when we won as we were up against strong competition from the other finalists.  Supporting our unpaid working carers is really important to us and for this to be recognised nationally is great.  We will continue to strive to improve the support we offer as an organisation".

You can find information about what it means to be an unpaid working carer, your rights, and the supports available to you as a Renfrewshire Council employee on our 'Council staff with caring responsibilities' webpage.

Learn more about our supports for colleagues with caring responsibilities.

Published Thursday 21 November 2024