7 documents working carers need before talking to HR

Key Takeaways

Print the documents working carers need before you sit down with HR. The seven below use current GOV.UK and Acas pages, then set them next to ranking guides from Age UK, Home Instead, Elder and Which?. Where their pages are more complete, I say so. Where a figure or a legal step is out of date, I say that too.

If you are skimming, the sheet most people photocopy is the clinic letter. HR cannot lawfully demand it for the unpaid week.

The manila folder on Tom's kitchen table in Salford has eight printouts. Clinic letter. Last year's P60. A benefits calculator screenshot. Age UK's fridge checklist. A page from the staff handbook with "special leave" highlighted in yellow. Two blank lines where a form should be. This listicle puts ranking UK guides, and the papers they lean on, next to our own posts. It is a pack you can take into the meeting, not a ranking of brands.

Carers UK's Tipping Point report (May 2026), drawing on State of Caring 2025, found 47% of employee carers were considering cutting hours or leaving. The pack below is for people still trying to use the rights that already exist.

1. A statutory flexible working request

This is the document HR actually files.

GOV.UK is four fields. The date. A statement that this is a statutory request for flexible working. The change you want to hours, times or place of work, and when you want it to start. Whether you have made a previous request, and the date if you have. Email is fine. So is the Acas letter template (6 April 2024) or the GOV.UK form. Employees in England, Scotland and Wales can send it from day one. Two statutory requests in any 12 months. Decision within two months unless you agree more time. You do not have to explain the effect on the business. You do not have to say you are a carer.

Home Instead's dementia-and-work article still says you need 26 weeks with the same employer, and that the request should include how the change may affect the organisation. That was the old law. Their page is stronger on burnout, GPs and local carers' groups. Do not wait half a year to ask for 9.30.

Age UK's juggling page (25 March 2026) is better on naming the patterns: compressed hours, job share, location flexibility. It does not list the four fields. We walked the email in flexible working for carers.

2. A carer's leave notice that names the days

Tell them you are taking unpaid carer's leave to give or arrange care for a dependant with a long-term need, and name the days or half days. Old age counts. That is the whole request.

Acas (5 April 2024) is blunt. You do not have to put it in writing. You do not have to give evidence of the dependant's care needs. Send the email anyway. Dated, four lines, sitting in sent mail. Notice for a half day or one day is at least three days. For two days, four. Employers cannot refuse it. They can postpone it if your absence would seriously disrupt the organisation, in writing, with a new date within a month.

The clinic letter can stay in the folder. Honestly, that one bothers me more than a missing handbook. People delay the week while they wait for a printout they were never required to fetch.

Age UK's carer's checklist (9 March 2026) tells you to tell your employer. Fair. It does not give the notice table, and it does not say evidence is not required. Home Instead's dementia page sends you to a GP, then to counselling. That can be the right medical support. It is not a condition of the unpaid week. We set the notice table out in how to take unpaid carer's leave.

3. The contract, the handbook, and any carers policy

Statutory leave is the floor. Some employers pay some or all of the week. Some add extra days. Some have nothing but the Act.

Print the pages. "Special leave" is not the same as carer's leave. Time off for dependants is the emergency right, not the planned week. If HR has a carers policy, take that too. If they do not, that is useful information.

CIPD's 2025 survey found 52% of organisations had a policy or procedure for carer's leave and only 15% had seen more requests since April 2024.

Age UK is clearer than most family pages on the split between statutory rights and contractual ones. Carers UK's requesting flexible working guide is stronger on stacking paid contractual days with the rest of the unpaid week, and on the Northern Ireland 26-week wait. Ask whether any of the week is paid before you assume a full week's wages vanish.

The ground-floor photocopier in Tom's housing association still wants a four-digit department code. Nobody currently in payroll remembers it. Someone wrote it in pencil on a Post-it during a maternity cover in 2019. The Post-it has outlasted two intranet rebuilds.

4. A workplace carer passport, if they have one

Ask. Some firms call it a passport, some a carer agreement, some a living document on the intranet.

The Civil Service template has been on GOV.UK since 2020 (last updated 18 August 2023). It records the hours you and your manager have already agreed, so you do not re-negotiate every time the manager changes. It is voluntary. It is not a statute. Write the start time and the clinic afternoon, not the diagnosis.

CIPD's carer-friendly workplace guide (7 July 2026) tells people professionals to write a policy, offer leave, train managers, and set up peer support. The public intro cites Carers UK's 47% figure, which comes from the Tipping Point report, not from CIPD's own survey. CIPD is the stronger page if you are HR. Age UK's juggling page does not mention passports. A passport does not replace the statutory request. Do both if 9.30 needs to survive a new line manager. We walked the form in what a workplace carer passport actually does.

5. A care needs assessment request for your parent

Even if you expect to pay privately.

The NHS says a needs assessment still helps you explain to an agency or a private carer what kind of help is needed. Ask the council where they live. It is free. Book it on unpaid carer's leave. Write down the clock time that collides with your contracted day, not "needs support with personal care".

Elder's carer's assessment guide (5 September 2024) is the page to print before the appointment. They list NHS number, GP details, and the emergency carer card some councils issue. Age UK's checklist is right to put your carer's assessment and their needs assessment on the same fridge page. Elder is fuller on the hour in the room. Neither maps the meeting onto a job you are trying to keep. Take notes on 7.40, not on "mornings". Our walkthrough is how to get a care needs assessment.

Scenario: Tom is 49. Payroll, a housing association off Chapel Street in Salford. Mum is 82, Pendleton, a wash that now takes forty minutes and tablets at 7.40. He used two half-days of carer's leave for the assessment and two video introductions. The weekday slot is 7.30 to 9.00, Monday to Friday. He still does Sundays.

6. This year's Carer's Allowance figures, from GOV.UK

Open GOV.UK Carer's Allowance and the eligibility page before you treat a charity checklist as current.

For 2026 to 2027 you could get £86.45 a week if you care for someone at least 35 hours and they get a qualifying benefit. Assessed earnings above £204 a week after tax, National Insurance and allowable expenses normally stop that week's payment. Scotland uses Carer Support Payment instead.

Age UK's carer's checklist still quotes £69.70 and £132. That is the 2022 to 2023 rate, sitting on a page marked 9 March 2026. The rest of their list (GP, adaptations, lasting power of attorney, benefits calculator) is broader than ours. The benefit line is not. Print GOV.UK. We walked the earnings-limit traps in Carer's Allowance and the earnings limit for people still in work.

The Health Foundation (27 February 2026), using Understanding Society for 2023 to 2025, put employment among working-age unpaid carers at 59%, against 67% for people who were not carers, and 35% among people caring 35 hours a week or more. Do not cut hours around a stale earnings limit.

7. A note of who employs the weekday carer

HR can change your start time. They cannot wash your mum at 7.40.

Write down the slot, the rate, and who would employ the person in the house. A CQC-registered agency employs the carer and runs the rota. An introductory marketplace introduces a self-employed carer. Different contracts, different cover, different phone numbers at 7am.

Which? (27 July 2020) asked 367 members. Half found the home care system difficult. Among people with concerns that year, 46% flagged a lack of regular carers and 24% had found a billing mistake. They cite NICE on continuity. The survey is six years old. Which? is still the clearest public page I opened on agency invoices, and they name the fork: CQC agency, introductory service, or employing someone directly.

The NHS puts help at home from a paid carer at about £15 to £30 an hour. Five weekday hour-long visits at £26 is about £6,760 a year. That is usually less than cutting a day's pay, before pension match.

Match With Care is an introductory marketplace, not a CQC-registered provider. We say that in one sentence. If a page will not, pause. We go through the fork in 7 checks before using a home care matching platform. Do not let the workplace EAP stand in for the hours. See why your EAP will not place a carer.

The DWP (18 March 2025) put about 544,000 working-age carers out of work because they were caring for someone of working age, at £37 billion in lost output using 2022 data. That slice excludes people caring for someone over working age. Eldercare of a parent on a state pension still takes the job if nobody else does the morning.

I still do not know whether Tom will send the statutory email or just have the conversation. Wednesday is booked either way.

Where other guides are stronger

Keep the pages above open. This list is the pack, not the whole rights library.

• Age UK is better on flexible patterns, emergency time off, the carer's own health, adaptations, lasting power of attorney, and the benefits calculator. Check their Carer's Allowance line against GOV.UK.
• Carers UK is better on statutory versus non-statutory flexible working, Northern Ireland, stacking paid and unpaid days, and the eight refusal reasons. They do not ask who employs the weekday carer.
• Which? is better on agency contracts, hidden charges, and continuity. The 2020 survey is old. The invoice questions are not.
• Elder is better on the carer's assessment pack and the emergency card. It will not keep a 9 to 5 around that meeting.
• CIPD is better if you are HR and need a policy. It is not a family document list.
• Home Instead is better on naming dementia burnout. Check their 26-week wait against GOV.UK.

None of those pages owe you a comparison with an introductory marketplace. That is our job, and it only counts where I opened both sides.

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How Match With Care can help

The meeting with your manager is shorter if the 7.30 slot already has a name on it.

Match With Care is a managed introductory care marketplace. Carers are interviewed, enhanced DBS-checked, right-to-work verified and reference-checked. You browse profiles, compare rates, and meet by video or in person before anyone starts. A care advisor stays with you through hours and cover. Hours go in the app. You get a weekly invoice.

We are not a traditional domiciliary agency and we are not CQC-registered as a care provider. Introductory services are not. If you want an agency that employs the carer and runs the rota, Which? is the better shopping list.

If you want help matching a named weekday slot rather than another EAP leaflet, speak to a care advisor. Bring the seven documents. Leave the clinic letter at home.