Carers UK has been advocating for leave for carers for some time. The charity has reported that ‘Millions of people in the UK juggle their unpaid caring responsibilities with paid employment. Balancing work and care can be a real struggle – with many carers saying they are tired, stressed and struggling to manage their own physical and mental health.’
Carers UK has also highlighted that its campaign to introduce this legislation has been motivated by the hundreds of thousands of people who have had to leave the labour market due to the pressure of having to manage paid work alongside unpaid care. According to the charity, on average, 600 people leave work to care every day.
Greater workplace support and flexibility
Following the Carers UK campaign, the Act came into force on 6th April 2024 and introduces a new statutory right to all employees in England, Wales and Scotland to take up to one week’s unpaid leave from work per year to provide or arrange care for a dependant with a long-term care need. Prior to the Act, employees were required to use other leave such as parental leave, annual leave and flexible working for this purpose.
The charity has outlined how it will continue to campaign for greater workplace support and flexibility for carers. Ultimately, Carers UK hopes to secure up to 10 days of paid leave at minimum from work for all carers in employment.
In order to ensure compliance with the Act, employers should be aware of the following considerations.
When does Carer’s Leave apply?
There is no minimum length of service required for the employee to reach before becoming eligible for Carer’s Leave. The right to Carer’s Leave applies from an employee’s first day of work. The days can be taken as either full or half days and can be taken in the same week or over a 12-month period.
What does Carer’s Leave cover?
The law does not place limits on how the time must be used and it is intended to be wide-ranging to cover all potential aspects of the dependant’s care. This could include making and taking the dependant to appointments or providing general daily support through to moving the dependant into or out of a care home.
Meaning of ‘dependant’ and ‘long-term care need’
A person is a ‘dependant’ for the purposes of the Act if, in relation to the relevant employee, they are a:
- Spouse.
- Civil partner.
- Partner.
- Child.
- Parent.
- Live in the same household as the employee (but not tenants, lodgers or employees) or reasonably rely on the employee to provide or arrange care (such as a neighbour).
A dependant has a ‘long-term care need’ if any of the following apply:
- A physical or mental illness or injury that means they are expected to need care for a period of more than three months.
- A disability (as defined in the Equality Act 2010).
- Care needs as a result of older age.
How Carer’s Leave is calculated
Under the new legislation, an employee can take up to one week of Carer’s Leave every 12 months. A week means the length of time an employee usually works in a week. For example, if an employee usually works four days a week, they can take up to four days as Carer’s Leave.
For employees with irregular working patterns, you, as an employer, can work out how much Carer’s Leave the employee is entitled to by adding up the total number of hours worked in the previous 12 months and dividing it by 52 (or however many weeks since the employee started the job, if they’ve been in the job less than a year).
The amount of leave is limited to one week per annum for each employee. The entitlement to leave does not increase if an employee cares for more than one dependant.
Can I refuse a request for Carer’s Leave?
You, as an employer, cannot refuse a request for Carer’s Leave altogether but can postpone it if taking leave at the requested time would cause serious disruption to the organisation.
If, as an employer, you need to postpone an employee’s Carer’s Leave, you must:
- Agree another date within one month of the requested date for the leave.
- 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.
Pay
You do not have to pay an employee for Carer’s Leave, but you can choose to if you wish. This may be covered in employees’ employment contracts or company policies, such as a Carer’s Leave policy.
If, as an employer, you do offer paid leave, but it totals less than five days, employees are still entitled to take up to a week’s Carer’s Leave per year if they are supporting someone with a long-term care need. For example, if, as an employer, you offer three days of paid leave, an employee could take an additional two days unpaid as Carer’s Leave.
In addition, if, as an employer, you already offer a week or more of Carer’s Leave in your contracts for new employees (that covers planned and foreseen caring commitments), the new legislation will not impact this. However, some employers may decide to increase their leave provision following the introduction of the Act. For example, this could result in the allowance of an additional five days’ unpaid Carer’s Leave on top of what you, as an employer, already offer.
Notice
There is no set method prescribing how employees should request Carer’s Leave. This can be written or verbal. However, an employee must provide advance notice to the employer of at least twice the number of days as the period of leave requested or three days in advance, whichever is earlier. Employees are not required to evidence their entitlement to the leave to their employer.
The Act has been introduced to support unpaid carers with planned and foreseen caring commitments. According to Carer’s UK, if the situation is urgent, employees have the legal right to take a reasonable amount of time off work to deal with an emergency involving someone who relies on them for help (as a dependant).
An employee’s rights and protections
As with other types of statutory leave, an employee will be protected from detriment and dismissal attributable to the fact that they took, or proposed to take, Carer’s Leave. Employees have the right to return to the same job on the same terms following any period of leave.
Employer considerations
It is important that employers review their current policies and handbooks, to ensure they are offering Carer’s Leave. Employers should ensure that their policies clearly state how and when the leave can be applied for, and clearly set out the procedure for doing so.
If an employee is dismissed for asserting their rights in relation to Carer’s Leave, it may be automatically classified as unfair dismissal. If a claim is made in the Employment Tribunal, you, as an employer, should be aware that they will need to pay for fees, including legal fees, to defend the claim, and compensation if the claim is successful. It is therefore important that all staff members are made fully aware of the new legislation.
Benefits to the sector
Research from Carers UK suggests that care sector employers stand to benefit from numerous socio-economic outcomes following the introduction of the Act. Polling from the charity states that 37% of working carers said they needed unpaid Carer’s Leave, and a further one in seven said if they didn’t get it, they would have to reduce working hours or give up work altogether.
Moreover, of particular interest to the care sector, where cost-saving is of utmost importance and employee retention is much lower than many employers would like, one organisation participating in research from Carers UK estimated that it saved around £1.8m per annum through the application of carer policies. This decision to support its employees by providing additional flexibility prevented unplanned absences, presenteeism and escalating recruitment costs.
Lastly, employers who are in the position to offer paid Carer’s Leave to the employment-seeking market may find that this offer forms part of a more enticing recruitment package, something that can only be beneficial to a care sector facing ongoing workforce shortages.
Do you think the new legislation goes far enough to support unpaid carers? Leave a comment on this article or join the conversation to share your thoughts.
Robyn Ackerman is a Solicitor in Employment and Corporate Law at Gordons Partnership Solicitors.
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