Across the UK, there are approximately half a million people who act as unpaid carers, and who are also self-employed, freelancers, or lead small businesses.

And unlike their counterparts who may be in salaried roles with employers, they lack any legal recognition or rights in how they try and balance and reconcile the often-competing tensions between supporting a dependent family member, and needing to make sure they’re able to earn enough to pay the rent, and also look after themselves…

I’m an unpaid carer myself – for my now adult children. Invitations from several national sector bodies that saw me leading some round tables as part of Carers Week last year, on this topic of balancing running your business with a caring role, uncovered some surprising realities about many of us in this circumstance:

• Many of us didn’t set up our businesses to flex around our caring responsibilities (the commonly held belief about people in this circumstance). We were already running and growing our respective businesses when something unexpected changed and we found ourselves taking on a caring role as well. But in light of none of us being able to identify or be offered any business support (in the way that you would if you were facing needing to make changes to your business model because you were going to start exporting, develop new R&D, intended to relocate your business, etc), we’ve all been forced to stall the aspirations we otherwise had for our business’ growth, investment, job creation, etc. 

• In having to now spend less time in/on our businesses we find ourselves not only earning less, which in turn puts more pressure on paying bills, etc, it also means there’s less time to be able to engage in networking (hence why I’m rarely seen at the ORB mixers), and/or investing in developing and maintaining our professional skills. And this means that we’re eroding the future viability of our businesses that we’ve worked so hard to establish before becoming a carer.

• For business owners recognising that they’re facing needing to adopt a caring role in the future, they don’t know where they can go to find out what this will mean for them and their business, and so enter the role with greater uncertainty and anxiety.

• And perhaps because of this lack of recognition for us, and lack of offers of business support, less than 10% of us are accessing any support for ourselves in our role as a carer who is also trying to keep running a sustainable and responsible business.

These round tables seemed to be well received by those participating in them as a welcome space to talk about, and reflect on how they were experiencing these challenges as many of us struggle to be comfortable to openly have such conversations about these tensions – while there are lots of spaces to reflect with fellow carers about being a carer, we don’t know where or how to talk about being a carer in the context of also being a business owner/freelancer. And this is based on a fear that if it becomes (too) publicly known to clients and associates about the challenges that being an unpaid carer can cause us in how we manage our businesses, then they’ll start to stop commissioning us because they can’t be assured that we’ll always be there for them when we say we will/want to be;  because we both know that in the event of the person we’re caring for having an urgent need, we’re always going to have to prioritise them over our customer.

But there are some benefits in being an unpaid carer who’s also running their own business. Despite not having the recognitions and protections in law that our salaried counterparts have, we have way more control over when and how we can down tools at no notice if/as needed for the person we’re responsible for – and that reduces some of the anxiety of being a carer, for example: a boss may otherwise struggle to release me from work with the flexibility I might need.

And being able to be so flexible with planning and scheduling work (to a point) means that I’ve also been able to spend more time in an advocating role for my children – not just supporting them in their day-to-day living, but also in liaising and speaking on their behalf with Social Services, medical practitioners, educational bodies, and such like. And that means that they’re more ‘in the system’ than they would have been otherwise if I’d not been able to work in this way for them.

I’m not sure that I’ve helped to offer any magic gems in resolving some of these challenges of unpaid care and self-employment through this piece, but perhaps it’s a useful and encouraging read for some, in better appreciating the additional pressures that some of us are living with in how we try to remain being responsible in how we’re managing and running our business (and which are usually otherwise hard to be recognised, and allowed for, in existing standards and quality marks?)

If you’re an unpaid carer and running your own business, you may find the below links of relevance:

www.ipse.co.uk/ipse-news/ipse-blog/self-employed-and-an-unpaid-carer-contact-us.html 

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/family/looking-after-people/carers-help-and-support/

https://www.gov.uk/browse/benefits/help-for-carers

https://www.carersuk.org/help-and-advice/

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