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Family Rights Group’s response to the Employment Rights Bill

Published: 10th October 2024

3 minute read

The Employment Rights Bill was unveiled today by the Government with new reforms to support families in employment.

Family Rights Group welcomes the Employment Rights Bill announced by the new government and encourage its efforts to support families in employment. However, it must urgently address the specific needs of kinship families with a right to paid employment leave.

The Bill announces several measures aimed at ensuring that no one is held back in work because it is not compatible with family responsibilities. Positive developments in this area include stronger protections for new mothers, who will be protected from being dismissed within six months of returning to work, and the establishment of a new right to bereavement leave.  

Family Rights Group calls on the government to include kinship families in their considerations when ensuring work is compatible with everyday family life.  

Kinship carers are grandparents, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, other relatives or friends, who step in to raise children who cannot live at home. 

More than 60% of kinship carers have to reduce their hours or give up their jobs entirely to provide care for their children, many of whom have complex needs. With so many losing out on needed income, many kinship carers become dependent on welfare benefits. 3 out of 4 kinship carers say becoming a kinship carer has caused them severe financial hardship.  

Family Rights group welcomes the government’s commitment to review parental leave and carers leave systems to ensure they are delivering for employers, workers and their loved ones. We urgently call for these reviews to include the needs of kinship families.  

Like adopters, kinship carers provide love and support to children who cannot remain at home. Yet their workplace rights differ, and kinship families suffer as a result. This is why Family Rights Group’s Act for Kinship Care campaign asks for a right to paid employment leave and protection for kinship carers, akin to adoption leave.  

This would allow new kinship carers and their children to settle into their new situation and make all the necessary arrangements to ensure a stable home for the kinship child. Paid employment leave for kinship carers could help them to return to work, in line with the government’s aim of ‘keeping people in work for longer, reducing recruitment costs for employers by increasing staff retention and helping the economy grow’.  

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