Guidance published by Government and ACAS on the new right to statutory carer's leave
From 6 April 2024, employees in England, Wales and Scotland have a statutory right to one week's unpaid carer's leave. Both the government and ACAS have now published helpful guidance on how carer's leave will work in practice.
What is the new right to carer's leave?
Employees are entitled to take up to a maximum of one week unpaid leave per year to care for or arrange care for a dependant with a long term care need. The dependant does not need to be a family member and can ultimately be anyone who relies on the employee for care.
A long term care need is considered as:
- A physical or mental illness or injury that requires care for more than three months
- A disability (as defined in the Equality Act 2010)
- Care needs because of old age
Employees are entitled to take carer's leave from their first day of work. Employees are entitled to return to the same job on the same terms and conditions following the leave, and are protected from detriment and dismissal as a consequence of taking the leave.
New guidance
The Government and ACAS have now both published guidance:
- The Government's guidance provides a short overview of the right to take carer's leave, including how much carer's leave can be taken and for what purpose, how to calculate a week's leave, how employees can take the leave and when an employer can delay it
- The ACAS guidance is more detailed and perhaps of more practical benefit to employers. It again summarises the right to take carer's leave. It goes into more detail than the government guidance and sets out helpful examples and tables of tricky elements such as how to calculate a week's leave for part-year or irregular hours workers, and how much notice the employee must give to take different amounts of leave. It also encourages employers to grant requests for carer's leave wherever possible, including requests to take leave at short notice. The guidance also contains advice on how employers can postpone leave and for what reasons. The guidance confirms that employers do not have to pay employees for carer's leave but suggests that they may choose to do so and advises employees to check their organisation's policies in order to confirm pay arrangements.