Family-friendly updates in employment law

The Carer’s Leave Act 2023 came into effect from 6^th April 2024. It guarantees eligible employees the right to take one week’s unpaid leave in each rolling 12-month period to provide or arrange care for a dependant with a long-term care need. 

‘Dependent’ includes a spouse, civil partner, child (where the child meets the definition of dependent with a long-term care need), parent, or a person relying on the employee for care but excludes general childcare. 

A dependent has a long-term care need if any of the following apply: 

• They have an illness or injury (whether physical or mental) that requires, or is likely to require, care for more than three months.

• They have a disability for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010.

• They require care for a reason connected with their old age.

The Carer’s Leave Act 2023 aims to provide support to carers from day one of employment, to contribute to improved mental health and overall wellbeing for carers. Employees should give their employer as much notice as possible when requesting carer's leave. As a minimum an employee must give notice in advance that is either twice the number of working days that they wish to take as carer's leave, or three days, whichever is earlier.

An employer cannot decline a request altogether but may postpone carer’s leave in certain circumstances. The Acas guidance provides further detail. 

For most employers the change will mean an update to their leave policy. 

This act extends the redundancy protections that currently apply to employees on maternity, adoption and shared parental leave to employees who are pregnant or who have recently returned to work from such leave. During the protected period, employees have the right to be offered suitable alternative employment in a redundancy situation.

The regulations extend the redundancy protection period so that it applies:

• for pregnant employees, from the point they inform the employer that they are pregnant; and

• for employees returning from maternity leave, adoption leave or shared parental leave, until 18 months after the expected week of childbirth, date of the child's birth, or date of the adoption placement.

To reflect the change employers should review their redundancy policy; they may also need to check the wording of their maternity, adoption and shared parental leave policies as appropriate. 

As a practical step, employers may want to place a marker on their HR systems for all staff who have this protection so that it is clear who has priority status if a redundancy situation arises.

Legislation changes to Statutory Paternity Leave (SPL) and Pay (SPP) allow employed fathers more flexibility to decide how and when they take their leave. The changes are:

• Allow fathers or partners to split their leave into two blocks of one week. 

• Allow fathers or partners to take their leave and pay at any point in the first year after the birth or adoption of their child instead of only within the first eight weeks.

• Adjust the way fathers or partners give notice of leave and pay to their employer. The new measure will require an employee to give notice that they intend to take leave 28 days prior to the expected week of childbirth (in birth cases) or within seven days of the date on which the adopter is notified of their match with the child (in adoption cases).

An action point for your organisation is to ensure that your policy is updated to reflect these new rules.

The Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023 will allow eligible employed parents whose newborn baby is admitted to neonatal care to take up to 12 weeks of paid leave which would be applicable from day one of employment. While it’s planned to come into force in 2025, an earlier implementation is possible, making it important to be aware of its potential impact.

It is crucial for businesses to stay up to date with these changes to remain compliant and competitive in today's evolving workforce. Given the number of changes to family-friendly and time-off rights being introduced, it would be a good opportunity to implement a general review of all family-friendly policies. 

You may also wish to communicate the changes to employees although there is no legal obligation to do so. However, making employees aware of the flexibility being introduced is a good way to foster employee motivation and morale whilst also showing your commitment to supporting employees if they decide to start or build upon their families. 

Please contact the Employment Team at Stone King if you would like further support with the changes referred to in this article.