Overview
If your child has special needs, you may need more time off work than others. This could be for taking your child to appointments or review meetings, for example.
Any employee can ask to work flexibly. This is called a statutory flexible working request. You can ask for this for any reason. Some reasons, like childcare, caring for a disabled person, or having a disability yourself, are protected by law. It is important to know that you have the right to ask for flexible work hours. You also should not face discrimination for asking.
Employees can also take leave to care for someone or help in an emergency for a dependent. This kind of leave is usually unpaid.
Working flexibly
Flexible working allows employees and employers to agree on when, where, and how work is done. This arrangement helps both parties. There are many types of flexible working. Here are some examples:
- Part-time working means working fewer hours than a full-time schedule
- Homeworking allows employees to work from their homes
- Hybrid working combines working from home and working from the office
- Flexitime lets employees choose their start and end work times, within agreed limits
- Job sharing means two or more people share the duties of one full-time job
- Compressed hours allow employees to work their total number of hours in fewer days
- Annualised hours spread an employee’s working time across the calendar year with a set number of hours
- Term-time working lets employees work only during school terms or specific times of the year
- Team-based rostering is a system where a team collaborates to create their schedule
These arrangements can be agreed informally. But there is a statutory procedure available to protect employees.
Declining flexible working
Employers can refuse flexible working if there is a significant business reason. These reasons are listed in the Employment Rights Act 1996 and include:
- burden of extra costs
- inability to rearrange work among current staff
- struggling to hire more staff
- harming the quality of work
- lowering work performance
- negative effect on meeting customer demand
- too little work for the employee during their proposed hour
- planned structural changes to the business
Requesting time off
Sometimes, parents of children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities need time off to support their child. They can use their holiday or annual leave for this. There are other options too. The employment contract will tell if these types of leave are paid, or more usually unpaid.
Parental leave
Each parent can take up-to 18 weeks of leave for each child until the child turns 18. Parents usually need to take this leave in blocks of weeks. They can take a maximum of 4 weeks per year for each child. If the child receives Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payment, the leave can be taken in blocks of days or hours. Parents must inform their employer 21 days before starting their leave. Employers cannot refuse or cancel parental leave completely. However, they can delay it if it will cause problems at work, like missing an important deadline.
Time off for dependants
Employees can take a reasonable amount of time off for an unexpected problem or emergency involving someone who depends on them. This includes for example illness, or a child’s school unexpectedly closing. Employers should be as flexible as possible in these situations.
Carer’s leave
Employees with a dependant who needs long-term care can take one week’s carer’s leave each year. They can use this time to provide or arrange care. They must notify their employer before their leave starts. Employers cannot refuse someone’s request for carer’s leave. But they can ask them to take it at a different time (within 1 month).