Our Carer Passport (Staff Intranet) is designed to make it easier for staff with caring roles to talk about the flexibility and support they need. It is essentially a document which enables a two-way discussion about your caring responsibilities and how they may impact on your work. It should open up the conversation of balancing your needs with the needs of your business area. It does not normally involve a formal change to your contract of employment. Your conversation would typically address the following: 

• Details of your current caring responsibilities – how they affect your work and vice versa;
• Flexible working and other policies;
• Support currently in place (if any) and consideration of how additional support might address both your needs and the needs of your team;
• Any additional questions you and your line manager may have about balancing caring and work.

No, a formal flexible working request is still required if you need a permanent change to your terms and conditions (e.g moving to part time working, compressed hours etc).

Further information about our Carer Passport can be found in the Carer Passport Leaflet (Staff Intranet). You can also contact your HR Business Partner (Staff Intranet) for your area and/or the Diversity and Inclusion Unit for advice or further information.

We would strongly encourage you to update your equality monitoring information by clicking on 'Sensitive Information (Diversity and Inclusion)' in the iTrent self-service menu. This helps us to develop a clearer picture of how many staff have caring responsibilities.

If you do not want to disclose your caring responsibilities to your line manager you may wish to approach your HR Business Partner or your Trade Union representative for advice.

• Download the Carer Passport (Staff Intranet). 
• Read the Carer Passport Leaflet and Sample completed passport via the Staff Intranet.
• Complete the Carer Passport, thinking about how caring impacts on your working life and what measures could be put in place to support you.
• Request a meeting with your Line Manager to discuss your caring needs and email them a copy of the passport prior to the meeting.
• At the meeting you and your line manager should have a conversation based on the information you have provided.
• Your line manager may require a reasonable amount of time (5-10 working days) to consider the support requested and the impact on your business area.
• Once the content of the document has been agreed, signed and dated by both parties we strongly recommend that your line manager should send a copy to the People and Culture Directorate by emailing hrhub@qub.ac.uk. This will be retained on your personnel record and used for monitoring purposes.
• If your caring needs change you should meet with your line manager again to review the document and amend to reflect your new circumstances. An updated version should then be forwarded to the People and Culture Directorate by emailing hrhub@qub.ac.uk.

• Familiarise yourself with the Queen's Carer Passport by reading Carer Passport, the Carer Passport Leaflet and Sample completed passport, all on the Staff Intranet.
• Your staff member should email you a draft copy of the Carer Passport along with a meeting request.
• Prior to the meeting you should:
  1. Carefully review the content of the Carer Passporty emailed to you
  2. Familiarise yourself with all relevant Queen's policies and support available to staff by looking at the resources and information available on the Carers webpage.
  3. Consider the impact of providing flexibility on your wider team and think of creative ways the requests can be accommodated and for what period of time.
  4. If required, contact the People and Culture Directorate (HR Business Partner (Staff Intranet) and/or Diversity and Inclusion Unit) for further advice.
• Once the content of the document has been agreed, signed and dated by both parties we strongly recommend that you send a copy to the People and Culture Directorate by emailing hrhub@qub.ac.uk for monitoring purposes and retention on the staff member’s personnel record.
• As caring needs can change over time you should arrange a review date to discuss again in the future. If the passport is amended a further copy of the updated passport should be forwarded to People and Culture by emailing hrhub@qub.ac.uk.

Very often a formal flexible working request for a change in working pattern will not be required. You can utilise the informal agile working toolkit and team standards to come up with an informal working arrangement.  Providing flexibility, support and understanding is the key for example:

• Slightly later start or early finish time
• Flexibility around the times of meetings e.g not 9 am or 4 pm
• Flexibility around the use of leave e.g allow carers to take some of their leave in hours rather than half or full days to assist them with attending appointments
• Allow access to mobile phone for personal calls
• Allow remote working on occasion if the role allows
• Ensure your staff know about all the support available at Queen’s for Carers, by directing them to the Carer website for information on policies, counselling, wellbeing activities and more

A fictitious Sample completed passport can be found on the Staff Intranet. 

If you change manager or team, the Carer Passport (Staff Intranet) travels with you and provides a straightforward way to advise your next line manager about the flexibility and support you currently have in place, without having to repeat the same conversations.

You would be advised to email your Carer Passport to your new line manager once you have been offered a new role. This will help them to consider how your current support structures could be maintained going forward. Managers must carefully consider the current arrangements and try to accommodate them. However, it is not guaranteed that, in all circumstances, the arrangements will continue into any new role.

As a line manager you should carefully consider and try to accommodate the current arrangements that your new staff member already has outlined on their Carer Passport. 

You should meet with them as soon as possible to discuss the arrangements.

It cannot be guaranteed, in all circumstances that previous arrangements will continue into the new role. However, where they can, they should be.  

If it is not possible to accommodate them, please meet with the staff member as soon as possible to discuss further and see if there are alternative ways you can support them. 

Please ensure you document any changes on a new Carer Passport and ask the employee to send the revised and agreed final version to the HR Hub.

If your caring role changes or ends and you no longer require a Carer Passport please speak with your line manager to advise them.  Please also send an email to eqdiv@qub.ac.uk so that central records can be updated. 

 If relevant please also update your Dependant information on Itrent self-service, “Sensitive Information”