Carer's Leave Regulations

The Carer's Leave Regulations 2024 are being introduced to provide employees with caring responsibilities the entitlement to one week of unpaid carer's leave in any 12-month period. This will come into force on 6 April 2024.

What will the regulations introduce?

• The right to request carer's leave will be a "day one" employment right. All employees, whether new starters or long-service employees, can request the period of absence, provided they have a dependant with a long-term care need.

• The leave is for those who need to be absent from work so they can provide or arrange care for that dependant. The key thing to note here is that this is intended to be utilised for long-term care rather than "short-term care needs", where instead employees should rely on the statutory right to time off for dependants (in an emergency) and compassionate leave or parental leave.