The Carer's Leave Act 2023: When does it take effect?
The implementation date has yet to be announced but will not be before April 2024.
What do we need to know?
- From day one of employment, employees will be entitled to request one week's unpaid leave per year to provide or arrange care for a dependant with a long-term care need.
- The definition of dependant will mirror the definition used for the existing statutory right to time off for dependants (including a spouse, civil partner, co-habitee, child, parent or anyone who reasonably relies on the employee for care).
- Dismissing an employee for a reason connected with taking carer's leave will be automatically unfair.
- Dismissing an employee for a reason connected with taking carer's leave will be automatically unfair.
- Employers may already have a 'time off for dependants' policy in place to cover situations where time off is needed to deal with an emergency involving a dependant. This new carer's leave is intended to apply where the care need is long term or related to a disability or issues connected with old age.
What do we need to do to prepare?
- Keep this on your radar and wait until the Regulations setting out the detail of the right are published. The Regulations will clarify issues such as whether the entitlement is one week per dependant or per employee (our guess is that it will be per employee). Once the Regulations are available, employers should prepare a carer's leave policy to sit alongside existing family leave policies.
- Consider at a strategic level whether your organisation might wish to enhance statutory entitlements on carer/dependant leave. There is a body of evidence that enhanced family leave policies play a role in attracting and retaining staff especially those in the 45+ age bracket. The UK's ageing population means this is likely to continue to be the case for the foreseeable future.
- The implementation of the Act is likely to raise employee awareness generally around family leave rights so it is a good time to consider refresher training for those involved in handling requests. carersuk.org have prepared some helpful guidance for employers which might be worth sharing at this stage. The Carer's Leave Act | Carers UK
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