A Jamie HR manager's guide

The manager's guide to Carer's Leave

A practical guide for managers and small businesses on Carer's Leave: who qualifies, the one-week annual entitlement, how it is taken, notice and postponement on both sides, and the protection from detriment and dismissal that comes with it.
Day-one right
One week unpaid
Protected from dismissal

Carer's Leave gives your employee a day-one right to time off for a dependant's long-term care needs.

This guide sets out what the law requires under the Carer's Leave Act 2023 and the Carer's Leave Regulations 2024: who qualifies, how the one-week entitlement works, how your employee can take it, the notice rules on both sides, and how it differs from the separate right to time off for dependants.

What's inside
What is Carer's Leave?3
Who is eligible?4
What counts as a long-term care need5
The one-week entitlement6
How the leave can be taken7
Notice and postponing a request8
Protection from detriment and dismissal9
Carer's Leave and time off for dependants10
Practical steps for managers11
Getting Carer's Leave right12
How Jamie HR helps13

What is Carer's Leave?

Carer's Leave is a statutory entitlement to unpaid time off to provide or arrange care for a dependant with a long-term care need.
  • The Carer's Leave Act 2023 received Royal Assent on 24 May 2023 and inserted a new right into the Employment Rights Act 1996.
  • The Carer's Leave Regulations 2024 brought Carer's Leave into force on 6 April 2024.
  • Carer's Leave is unpaid. Your business decides whether to pay for it and, if so, how much.
  • It sits alongside the separate, longstanding right to unpaid time off for dependants in an emergency, covered later in this guide.
Manager tip
Confirm in writing whether your business pays employees during Carer's Leave, since the law leaves this decision to you.

Who is eligible?

Carer's Leave is a day-one right, available to any employee providing or arranging care for a qualifying dependant.
  • Carer's Leave is a day-one right. Your employee qualifies from their first day of employment, with no minimum length of service.
  • A dependant is your employee's spouse, civil partner, child or parent, or someone who lives in their household.
  • Lodgers, tenants, boarders and other employees living in the same household do not count as dependants.
  • Someone outside the household, such as an older neighbour, can still count as a dependant if they reasonably rely on your employee to provide or arrange their care.

What counts as a long-term care need

The dependant's care need must meet one of three statutory tests.
  • An illness or injury, physical or mental, that requires, or is likely to require, care for more than three months.
  • A disability as defined in the Equality Act 2010.
  • A care need connected to old age.
  • A short-term illness, such as a cold or a stomach bug, does not meet this test; that kind of one-off need is covered by time off for dependants instead.

The one-week entitlement

Your employee can take up to one week of Carer's Leave in any rolling 12-month period.
  • The entitlement is up to one week in any rolling 12-month period.
  • A week means the amount of time your employee normally works over 7 days, so it scales with their working pattern.
  • For an employee with irregular hours, work out a week by averaging the hours they worked over the previous 12 months.
  • The leave can be taken in periods as short as half a working day, up to a maximum of one continuous week at a time.
  • The one-week entitlement is shared across all of your employee's dependants; caring for more than one person does not increase it.
Manager tip
Work out what a week means for each employee before agreeing dates: part-time and irregular-hours staff have a different number of days in their week to a full-time employee.

How the leave can be taken

Carer's Leave can be taken flexibly, in the pattern that suits your employee's caring role.
  • Your employee chooses how to split their entitlement across the 12-month period: a single continuous week, individual days, or half days.
  • Their notice must confirm they are entitled to Carer's Leave and state the days, or part days, they want to take.
  • You cannot require your employee to supply evidence of the caring need before granting the leave.
  • Your employee does not need your agreement to take the leave itself, only to follow the notice rules set out below.

Notice and postponing a request

Notice periods scale with the amount of leave requested, and you can postpone a request only in limited circumstances.
  • Your employee must give notice before the leave starts: at least 3 days' notice, or twice as many days' notice as the number of days or part days requested, if that is longer.
  • For example, one day's leave needs at least 3 days' notice; a 5-day working week needs at least 10 days' notice.
  • You can postpone a request only where you reasonably consider the business would be unduly disrupted by the leave falling on those dates.
  • If you postpone, you must offer alternative dates that fall no later than one month after the earliest day originally requested.
Watch out
Give any postponement notice in writing, with your reason and the new dates, as soon as reasonably practicable. It must reach your employee within 7 days of their request, or before the leave was due to start if that is sooner.

Protection from detriment and dismissal

Taking or requesting Carer's Leave carries specific legal protection.
  • It is unlawful to subject your employee to a detriment because they took, sought to take, or made use of the benefits of Carer's Leave.
  • Dismissing your employee is automatically unfair if the reason, or principal reason, relates to Carer's Leave.
  • This protection applies from day one and does not require any minimum length of service.
  • While on Carer's Leave, your employee keeps their other terms and conditions, including the right to return to the same job, and continues to accrue holiday and any contractual benefits.
Watch out
Detriment can include overlooking your employee for promotion or training because they took or requested Carer's Leave. Take advice before making any decision connected to a request.

Carer's Leave and time off for dependants

These are two distinct statutory rights, and it helps to keep them separate.
  • Time off for dependants, under section 57A of the Employment Rights Act 1996, covers sudden, unforeseen emergencies involving a dependant.
  • It is unpaid unless your business chooses to pay it, and the law sets no fixed amount of time, only that it should be reasonable for the emergency.
  • Carer's Leave covers planned, ongoing care for a dependant's long-term needs, and follows the notice rules set out earlier in this guide.
  • The two rights are separate and not interchangeable: your employee might use time off for dependants for a sudden crisis, then Carer's Leave for the ongoing care that follows.

Practical steps for managers

A short, consistent process makes Carer's Leave straightforward to administer.
  • Set out your Carer's Leave policy in writing, including whether your business chooses to pay for it.
  • Record each request: the dates or part days asked for, when notice was given, and any postponement offered.
  • Do not ask for evidence of the caring relationship or the dependant's condition before granting the leave.
  • Apply the same process consistently across your team, and keep the details confidential.
  • Track each employee's rolling 12-month entitlement period so you know how much Carer's Leave remains.
Manager tip
Add Carer's Leave to your absence policy and starter paperwork, so managers and new employees both know the right exists from day one.

Getting Carer's Leave right

A summary of the essentials covered in this guide:
  • Carer's Leave is a day-one right to up to one week of unpaid leave in any rolling 12-month period, in force since 6 April 2024.
  • It covers a dependant with a long-term care need: an illness or injury needing care for more than three months, a disability, or a care need connected to old age.
  • Your employee can take it as a full week, individual days or half days, and you cannot require evidence.
  • Give the right notice on both sides: at least 3 days from your employee, or twice the days requested if longer; and, if you postpone, written reasons and new dates within one month.
  • Detriment and dismissal linked to Carer's Leave are unlawful from day one.
  • Keep it separate from time off for dependants, which covers unplanned emergencies rather than ongoing care.

How Jamie HR helps

Carer's Leave is a day-one right with its own notice rules and its own record-keeping needs. Jamie HR keeps requests, notice and entitlement tracked in one place.
  • Leave tracking that records each Carer's Leave request, the dates taken and the rolling 12-month entitlement remaining.
  • Policies and documents, including your Carer's Leave policy, held where managers and employees can find them.
  • Notice and postponement records, so every request has a clear, dated audit trail.
  • Absence reporting that keeps Carer's Leave separate from time off for dependants and other leave types.
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This guide is general information, accurate to the best of our knowledge as of 2026, and is not legal advice. Employment law changes and every situation is different, so for a specific case take professional HR or legal advice. Sources: gov.uk, ACAS and the Employment Rights Act 1996 (as amended by the Carer's Leave Act 2023 and the Carer's Leave Regulations 2024).