Evaluation of the Carers in Employment (CiE) Project: Final report

This report presents the findings from the IES evaluation of the government-funded Carers in Employment (CiE) project which operated from 2015 to 2017.

The project aimed to examine 'what works' in supporting carers to remain in or return to employment. Co-ordinated by the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), the project involved nine local authorities in England. Activities provided for carers and/or employers included information, advice and guidance to carers; advice on assistive technology, and employer measures such as raising awareness of the opportunities for, and the challenges of, support employed carers.

The report offers insights on key areas of the evaluation. On employer practice, the report suggest that more supportive workplace cultures and reduced conflict between staff over work adjustments for carers were reported thanks to the CiE project. Interaction with the project had, for some, particularly smaller, employers, enabled the introduction of carer-friendly HR policies and practices, such as considering requests for flexible working. There were also key findings in areas such as the challenges facing larger or regionally dispersed employers; carer assessments; and the identification of 'hidden' carers.

A technical annex contains methodological details of interviews conducted as part of the IES evaluation and tabular summaries of monitoring data collected at interim and final stages of the evaluation.

Read a summary of the findings from IES