College achieves Carer Positive Established award

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West Lothian College has been awarded with the Carer Positive Award at the Established level.

Carer Positive is a Scottish Government initiative created with the support of a partnership of private, public and voluntary sector organisations across Scotland.

The three-tier accreditation - Engaged, Established & Exemplary - raises awareness of the challenges facing working carers and encourages employers to create a supportive working environment in the workplace.

And as a Carer Positive employer- the college has been acknowledged for its continuous support to staff with caring responsibilities.

Suzanne Rankin, HR Business Partner at West Lothian College who led the process of achieving the award with HR Assistant, Amy Lamont, said: “We are delighted, and very proud that we now have this in place. As an employer, we were keen to work with our employees to build support for staff who have caring responsibilities.

“We were lucky to be accredited the first level in 2023- and through initiatives in partnership with the legislation updates in 2024, we were able to implement additional support through unpaid leave, teams’ channel, and the care passport scheme.

“We also held various meetings with Carers of West Lothian to make sure we were on the right path and the college was praised for the forward thinking and over and above efforts, and in addition to this- we had received positive feedback from employees at the college for the steps and support we have in place.”

The team hope to now work towards achieving the Exemplary award.