Our policy is to advertise vacancies internally for one week, then externally is required. A concern has been raised that an employee who is a carer of a person/persons with protected characteristics under the Equality Act, and on the presumption job applications are expected to be worked on in one’s own time, whether seven days a reasonable period to consider and properly prepare an application when compared with other potential applicants who may not have the same level of caring responsibilities.

Any thoughts or advice would be gratefully received.