Posted Date: 12th February 2024
The Carer’s Leave Regulations 2024 is still in draft form, but will become live on 6th April 2024. We have set out the key details below.
There is already existing legislation which covers dependency leave within the Employment Rights Act 1996 which states anyone legally classed as an employee can take time off to help a dependant with an emergency. However, the amount of leave an employee can take under this Act, is a "reasonable" amount, which is vague and open to interpretation.
The new Carers Leave provides employees with one week of unpaid leave across a rolling 12-month period. They have the option to take the leave as half or full days, with the minimum being half a day.
A ‘week’ means the length of time the employee normally works over seven days. For e.g, if an employee usually works two days per week, they can take two days of carers leave.
Carer’s leave is a 'day one right', meaning it will be available to eligible employees from the first day of their employment.
Employees taking their carer’s leave entitlement will be subject to the same employment protections that are associated with other forms of family related leave, meaning they will be protected from dismissal or any detriment as a result of having taken time off. They also have the right to return to the job in which they were employed before taking a period of carer’s leave.
Employees will be able to take the leave flexibly depending on their caring responsibilities and will not need to provide evidence of how or who the leave is for, with the aim of a smoother process for both employees and employers.
Carers leave can only be used to provide care for a dependent with a long-time care need, which is defined as:
- an illness or injury (physical or mental) requiring, or likely to require, care for more than three months, or
- a disability under the Equality Act 2010, or
- care is required for a reason connected with old age.
The dependant does not have to be a family member. It can be anyone who relies on them for care, for example an elderly neighbour who they regularly support.
Carers leave can be used for multiple dependents of an employee, but they will not get more than the one week of leave.
The required notice period for employees requesting carers leave is twice as many days as the period of leave required, or three days (whichever is longer), and does not need to be in writing. For example, one days leave would require three days notice. One week would require two weeks notice.
If a carers leave request could seriously disrupt a business the employer must:
- put the reason for the delay and new date in writing to the employee within seven days of the original request, and before the requested start date of the leave
- confirm a new date on which they can take the leave within a month of the original date(s) requested.
This doesn't replace Parental Leave, which is up to 18 weeks of unpaid leave employees can take to look after their children's welfare.
The Carer’s Leave Regulations 2024 is still technically in draft format, so if there are any changes before it goes live on 6th April 2024 we will be sure to update our blog!
Other family-friendly regulations and amendments will also come into effect on 6th April 2024, including changes to statutory paternity leave, the right to make flexible working requests from day one and enhanced redundancy protections for new parents.
For any further information on this subject or any other HR support, please don't hestitate to contact us.