Leave for Caring Purposes

Guidance for SMEs

Introduction

A large number of people of working age have caring responsibilities. Currently one in six women who work also look after children under 16. One in six of all workers also cares for elderly relatives and this proportion is likely to increase as the population as a whole ages. In addition, with increasing numbers of women entering the workforce many households have nobody at home to address care issues full-time.

The vast majority of working carers struggle in silence, wishing to be good employees and diligent carers. In providing these people with leave when needed, you are will be as likely to reap the benefits as they are.

What is carer leave?

Carer leave - also frequently referred to as family leave - is any leave given to an employee to enable him or her to meet home commitments. The most common types of leave are:

1. Parental Leave

The Employment Relations Act 1999 provides for each parent of a child born or adopted on or after the 15 December 1999, to have 13 weeks off work to care for a child during the first five years of her/his life.

In the case of adoption, parental leave maybe taken at any time prior to the fifth anniversary of the date when the placement adoption began, or the childs 18th birthday, if earlier.

If the child is in receipt of Disability Living Allowance, parents are entitled to 18 weeks parental leave up until the child's 18th Birthday (no matter when they were born).

Children who were under the age of 5 on the 15th December 1999 are also entitled to Parental Leave, but this must be taken by the 31st March 2005.

There is no legal obligation for the leave to be paid - which is likely to make it difficult for many working parents to take it up.

The Regulations (see next section) give details of the fallback scheme - the legal minimum; but wherever possible, employers and employees are encouraged to make their own arrangements about how leave will work in a particular workplace. This may be done through individual, workforce or collective agreements, which can improve upon the key elements of the legislation, but cannot offer less.

Agreements can also cover matters such as how much notice of parental leave must be given, arrangements for postponing leave, and how it should be taken.

Employers do not have to maintain records of leave taken (although they may well want to set up their own monitoring and recording procedures).

Parental Leave - the key elements of the Fallback Scheme
(which cannot be detracted from by workforce or collective agreement)

• The right to take leave is available for to any employee with parental responsibility of a child. Mothers and adoptive parents have parental responsibility, as do fathers who are married to the childs mother. Unmarried fathers may take parental leave if they have acquired parental responsibility or they are on the childs birth certificate.

• There is a maximum qualifying period of one year's continuous employment.

• The right is to 13 weeks of unpaid leave for each parent of each child five years of age. If the child is receiving disability living allowance (DLA), the right is to 18 weeks of unpaid leave, to be taken by the time the child is 18.

• 21 days notice is required prior to taking leave, subject to postponement by employer for up to six months, where the business cannot cope with the employee's absence at that time.

• Leave can be taken in blocks of 1 week up to a maximum of four weeks leave in a year (for each child); or in blocks of one day if the leave is to care for a child in receipt of Disability Living Allowance, again to a maximum of four weeks a year.

• Employee will remain employed while on parental leave; some terms, such as contractual notice and redundancy terms still apply, but the employee need not be paid and is not bound by contractual terms other than good faith, confidentiality, acceptance of gifts, notice of termination and working for someone else.

• On return, the employee is guaranteed the right to return to the same job as before, or, if that is not practicable, a similar job which has the same or better status, terms and conditions as the old job. Where the leave taken is for a period of four weeks or less, the employee will be entitled to go back to the same job.

• An employer can postpone leave for up to six months if there is a good reason but it cannot be postponed when an employee gives notice that she/he wishes to take leave from a date a child is born or placed for adoption. However, as two weeks paid paternity leave is now available, it is likely that most eligible employees will take this rather than unpaid parental leave.

Employees have the right to go to an Employment Tribunal if the employer prevents or attempts to prevent them from taking parental leave. An employee who takes parental leave will also be protected from victimisation, including dismissal, for taking it.

Improvements to the fallback scheme might include:

• Paid Parental Leave. If you cannot afford to offer fully paid provision, you may wish to consider allowing a small number of paid days with the option for the employee to take further unpaid time off.

• Reducing the qualifying time required to be eligible.

• Leave can be taken in different time blocks i.e. single days or all 13 weeks together.

• All leave takers are guaranteed a return to their own job even if they take longer than four weeks.

2. Emergency Family Leave

This allows employees a short amount of unpaid time off to make arrangements to deal with specific circumstances involving a dependent.

1. If a dependent falls ill, is injured,is assaulted or gives birth

2. If normal childcare or care arrangements unexpectedly breakdown

3. Dealing with matters arising from the death of a dependent, such as arranging and/or attending a funeral

In 2 and 3 above a dependent is defined as the employee's spouse, child or parent, or a person living in the same household (but not a tenant or a lodger). In 1 a wider definition of dependant applies - that is, any person who reasonably relies on the employee for help in the circumstances, an elderly relative for example.

The amount of time should be reasonable and sufficient to deal with the immediate problem and make longer term arrangements.

3. Eldercare Leave

For employees upon whom an elderly person depends for care. There is a statutory right to Emergency Family Leave (see above), which allows time off work for an employee to arrange for care of an elderly or disabled relative. Where feasible, you should also consider whether a more flexible working arrangement might enable the carer to continue working rather than give up work completely or take chunks of time off work. Note that the statutory right to request flexible working is likely to be extended to carers in April 2007.

Why have a carer leave policy?

Employers already have a legal requirement to provide Maternity Leave, Paternity Leave, Adoption Leave and Parental and Emergency Family Leave. Regardless of the legal requirement, there is a sound business argument for allowing carer leave.

Consider the following facts:

• In a recent survey 40% of employees who also care for elderly relatives said that they would have to give up work because they could not balance the two demands. By allowing time off, you may retain a skilled employee who would otherwise be forced to stop working for you altogether.
  
  You may also find that allowing such an employee to work more flexibly helps him or her to balance commitments. A separate factsheet on managing flexible workers is available from Working Families.

• Many employees who need time off to address a family matters are forced to call in saying they are sick. This not only adds to the guilt they feel, but can actually mean they are away from work longer than they need to be.
  
  For example, if you do not allow carer leave, a parent who needs to take his child to the dentist may take the day off sick. With carer leave he need only take a few hours.

The benefits of a formal leave policy

A formal policy may seem bureaucratic and inappropriate for a small organisation, but it can be brief - just a few lines long and preferably written down. The benefit of formalising the situation is that employees know exactly where they stand. They are also reassured that everyone will be treated in the same way, rather than feeling that some employees are getting favourable treatment.

In developing a leave policy for your business, you should consider the following questions:

• Will the leave be paid and unpaid, or a mixture of both? Very often employees with caring commitments cannot afford to take time off if it is unpaid. You may be able to provide one or two days of paid leave with further unpaid leave if necessary.

• SME owners have told us they often allow employees to take time off for family commitments and make the hours up at a later date. Not only does this get around the issue of paying for leave, it also serves to increase an employee's loyalty and commitment. Depending on the nature of your business, perhaps you could take the same approach.

• How many days leave will you allow? Clearly there are vast differences here. Family issues and family emergencies may only require a half or one day. Carer leave to tend to a dying relative could run into several months.

Working Families can provide information about typical leave periods for differing kinds of leave. Once again, it is prudent to define how much leave you expect to give in a particular situation so that neither you nor your employee feels exploited; and so that your business can continue to function in his/her absence.

Further Information and Support

Carers UK
20/25 Glasshouse Yard, London EC1A 4JT Tel: 020 7490 8818
Fax: 020 7490 8824
Email: info@ukcarers.org
Website: www.carersonline.org.uk

A Factsheet of this nature can only provide general guidance. It should not be used as a substitute for independent legal advice. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of its content, we cannot be held responsible for any errors.

June 2006

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