Carer's Leave

The Carer’s Leave Act 2023 came into force on 4 December 2023. However, further legislation was needed to bring the entitlement into force.

The Carer’s Leave Regulations 2024 come into force on 6 April 2024 and create a ‘day-one’ right for employees who are also unpaid carers for a family member or a dependent with a long-term care need to take up to one week’s unpaid leave in each rolling 12-month period to provide care (s80J to 80N Employment Rights Act 1996).

The leave can be taken half or full days, up to a block of one week. To reflect the fact that care requirements can be unpredictable, the required notice period is short; either twice as many days as the period of leave required OR 3 days (whichever is the greater). However, an employer may waive the notice period if it wishes to do so. Again, to ensure maximum flexibility, notice need not be given in writing.

An employer may not decline a request altogether but may postpone the leave date for up to 1 month if it would result in undue disruption. The employer must provide a written notice within 7 days of the initial request, explaining the reasons for postponement and setting out the agreed dates for leave to be taken. However, in many cases, postponing leave may not be feasible (for example if the employee needs to provide care urgently in response to an emergency). Importantly, an employer cannot require evidence (relating to the situation, or the individual requiring care) before granting the leave.

Employers need to tread carefully because, as with other types of statutory leave, employees are protected from detriment for taking or seeking to take carer’s leave. Employees are also protected from unfair dismissal and have the right to return to the same job after taking the leave.

For the purposes of the new Regulations, a ‘dependant’ is a spouse, civil partner, child or parent of the employee; or anyone who lives in the employee’s household and reasonably relies on the employee to provide or arrange care.

A dependant has a ‘long-term care need’ for these purposes if they require care connected with their old age; have a disability for the purposes of Equality Act 2010; or have a physical or mental illness/injury which requires, or is likely to require, care for more than three months.

Employees who need time off to look after a dependant who does not have a long-term care need, for example to deal with a child’s unexpected illness or injury, can continue to make use of the right to ‘reasonable time off’ for dependants (s57A and 57B ERA 1996). This time is unpaid, and is intended to deal with short-term emergencies only, or to put longer-term arrangements in place.

Additionally, a parent or carer of a child aged under 18, remains entitled to a period of 18 weeks unpaid Parental Leave in respect of each child, whether or not they have specific care needs (s76-79 Employment Rights Act 1996). 52 weeks continuous service is required to qualify.

With all the above types of unpaid leave, employers are free to offer full or part pay if they wish to do so. A consistent approach should be applied to all employees taking the same type of leave.

View our Carer's Leave Policy.