Company Boards are missing out on a massive talent pool because no-one's asked them about caring

'Professional me' works with various Boards of companies, charities, social enterprises, etc as a trusted advisor, consultant and facilitator.

But as some may know, I'm also an unpaid carer - which limits the ways in which I can work, and the ways in which organisations might have otherwise benefitted from my support.

And I'm stating these things because they reflect national and growing trends that I think we should be having more conversations around. But don't take my word for it:

- Carers UK have identified roughly 600 people quit their paid jobs and careers every day, because the demands on them as unpaid carers reaches a tipping point that means they're no longer able to live these dual lives. 

- There's a Government consultation on how employers might do more to help keep people in work when they're also unpaid carers, because it recognises the future impact of this growing issue (that many people struggle to talk about or recognise).

the scale of the problem of unpaid carers being absent from company boards

In my journey to date, I've only been sharing the experiences and insights of how the self-employed and freelancers like me are constantly re-mixing our lives and work to reconcile the caring responsibilities will need to pay the rent. But I've recently realised that there's another part of our wider economy and business ecosystems that is also 'missing out' because it's never thought about unpaid carers - corporate boards.

Now, some people reading this will be thinking 'so what?' - how big an issue can this really be, if no-one's been talking about it in the usual governance circles (Institute of Directors, etc)? But let's have a quick check of the data on this:

- Carers UK data from 2025 says roughly 300,000 people who are unpaid carers also hold senior management and Director roles. I think these are largely people who were already in posts before becoming carers, as this research also highlights how being an unpaid carer significantly actively limits the career development and opportunities for roughly half of all such people. And remember that this is a shrinking number because this group of people are amongst those 600 who are being forced to quit every day...

- Now, assuming a roughly even split in this figure between senior managers and Directors, and Companies House data about how many Company Directors there are, creates a ratio of 2%.

Only 2% of corporate boards are tapping into, and benefiting from, the insight, expertise, and skills of people that might otherwise be enabling them to further grow, expand, etc.

Let me put this another way - 98% of all Boards are missing out of what might otherwise be helping them become more successful and impactful, simply because they've never thought about how they'd support or accommodate a candidate who's also an unpaid carer.

why has this blind spot in corporate governance never been spotted before now?

This isn't their fault - no-one's ever talked with them about it before: the IoD, Actuate, and other national bodies who represent, support, and advocate for this organ of governance all seem equally quiet on this too when I've looked into their messaging and content about the things Boards should be considering, and how individuals can make the most of opportunities to join them.

time to start a new rallying call?

I've shared in the past how current national policy and legislation about unpaid carers is already actively discriminating against about 1 million of us, simply because it never assumed that someone who is self-employed or a small business owner would ever also be an unpaid carer.

So is it time to also start 'poking a stick' at the worlds of corporate governance, as it might seem that this other end of the economic ecosystem is similarly unknowingly ignorant - which comes with increasing future risks and costs to us all...