What is carer’s leave?
As more employees balance caring duties at home with their work life, a carer’s leave UK law would allow employees to take time off in order to look after a family member. As a law is yet to be passed for carer’s leave entitlement, it isn’t yet clear how employers will be affected by these changes. However, some companies are already taking the lead and providing their employees with carer’s leave. Below, we’ll look at what we already know about the new law, as well as tips for creating a carer’s leave policy.
Carer’s leave UK law
Carer’s leave entitlement has yet to be passed in UK law. However, there are a few guidelines which have been decided on by the UK government.
Back in October 2022, the UK government declared that employees would be entitled to one week of unpaid carer’s leave every year. They will be able to take this time off regardless of how long they have been working for you. Employees also do not need to provide any evidence of how they plan to use this time off. For more information, please visit the UK government website. This new law will amend provisions already in the Employment Rights Act 1996.
There are some laws already in place that may cover the responsibilities that your employees have. We will now address these below.
Time off for dependant family members
The UK government states that employees can take a set amount of time off each year for dependants during an emergency. This means that employees are able to take some time off in order to deal with an emergency regarding a dependant, but this only applies during an emergency.
For extended time off to provide care, discuss available options with the employee in line with your organisation’s leave policy and current official guidance. Options may include annual leave or, where applicable, parental or other leave types; note that time off for dependants typically covers emergencies rather than extended arrangements.
Compassionate leave
You might instead offer your employee what’s known as ‘compassionate leave’. Compassionate leave is handled differently across organisations, so refer to your organisation’s policy for how it is managed.
Creating a carer’s leave policy
You might choose to offer paid carer’s leave to your employees, even though they’re not yet entitled to it by UK law. In this case, it’s useful to state this in your policy handbook or on your company website. This is so employees and candidates alike know what you offer as a business.
How much paid time off to offer
When it comes to carer’s leave, how much paid time you offer to employees is still currently up to you as the employer. Your carer’s leave policy could combine a mix of paid emergency leave and paid planned leave. The policy might allow for 10 carer’s leave days off a year, with a split of five days of paid emergency leave and five days of paid planned leave a year.
You might offer additional weeks of unpaid leave for carers. This means that you could include several weeks of unpaid care leave a year, on top of paid carer’s leave within your policy.
If you are planning on offering a certain number of days of paid and unpaid carer’s leave, it is important to make sure you keep this as clear as possible in your policy handbook. This is to reduce confusion about how much paid leave is available and it means you have information to refer to if an employee challenges you on how much time off they are allowed to take.
Why is creating a carer’s leave policy useful?
Your employees may be increasingly taking on additional caring duties such as looking after elderly or chronically ill family members. If they are juggling this responsibility on top of working for you, they may not have the energy left over to perform at their best. This may result in illnesses like chronic stress. By creating a carer’s leave policy, you can take some of the burden off your employees by giving them a combination of paid and unpaid time off in order to spend more time managing caring duties.
Not only does this potentially take some of the pressure off your employees, it also means that you are potentially more likely to retain and attract talent. It can help your workplace culture become more inclusive, making your roles more attractive to top candidates who otherwise may feel that they have too many additional caring responsibilities at home to take it on.
Carer’s leave is potentially about to become UK law. However, as many companies are already offering their employees a mix of paid and unpaid leave specifically for carers, you might want to introduce this into your own policy. By providing your employees with carer’s leave, you can help reduce employee turnover, retain talented employees and attract new talent. If you plan to offer some paid time off, it’s useful to include this information in your handbook so your employees know what to expect if they need to take this time off.
