Carer’s Week 2018

This week is Carers Week - an annual campaign to raise awareness of caring, highlight the challenges carers face and recognise the contribution they make to families and communities throughout the UK.

Around 6.5 million people in the UK are carers, looking after a parent, partner, child or friend. A carer is someone who provides unpaid care and support to a family member or friend who has a disability, illness, mental health problem or who needs extra help as they grow older.

Today, advanced customer advisor Andrew Metcalfe, who is based at our Doxford contact centre in Sunderland, shares his experience as a parent.

‘I have worked for Royal Mail since June 1998,’ said Andrew. ‘I am married to my wife Terresa, who also works in Doxford as part of the business sales team. We have two children: Megan, who is 16, and Lilly-Beth, who is 10.

‘Over the years each of our shifts have changed numerous times. When I joined the address management unit (AMU) I discussed my working hours with my manager and we arranged for me to work my shifts around my wife's so that there was always one of us available to pick the children up and drop them off at school.

‘The AMU has always been great whenever there has been an emergency or something happens at short notice. Two recent occasions when I had to rearrange my shifts at short notice included a time when I had to attend an appointment to view a secondary school with Lilly - I was able to finish a couple of hours early on the Monday and I then paid the time back during the week.

‘A couple of weeks ago I needed to start an hour later on a Friday for childcare reasons. Again I had a chat with my manager and she amended my shifts to accommodate this. Being able to amend shifts at short notice to accommodate these ad hoc occurrences is a huge help in balancing work and family life.’

Parents & Carers

Please visit the Parent & Carers steering group homepage to read more about the work the group is doing, and access a range of resources available to support you if you are caring for others.

If you would like to share your story, learn more or get involved, please contact us at parents.and.carers@royalmail.com.

Click here to find out more about Carers Week and how you can get involved.