As a working parent, juggling childcare and work can be difficult, and you might be concerned about managing these commitments. In this article we look at your rights as a working parent and what you are entitled to receive without compromising your career.
From on 6 April 2026:
- paternity leave will become a ‘day one right’, allowing parent employees to give notice of leave from the first day of employment – currently parents must have worked for their employer for 26 weeks
- ordinary parental leave, or unpaid parental leave, will also become a day one right – currently parents must have worked for their employer for 1 year to be eligible
- the restriction on taking paternity leave after shared parental leave will be removed
- eligible fathers and partners will be able to take up to 52 weeks of unpaid bereaved partner’s paternity leave if the mother or primary adopter dies – they must take this leave within 52 weeks of the child’s birth (including surrogacy), adoption placement, or entry to Great Britain for overseas adoptions
Time off to look after your child
If you are an employee, you are allowed to take time off for emergencies, for example, if your child is unwell, they cannot attend childcare (for example, if they have something contagious like chickenpox) and you have no childcare.
There is no prescribed amount of how much time off you can take to deal with an emergency situation; you are allowed a ‘reasonable’ amount of time, usually considered to be up to two days. However, if you need an extended amount of time off, more than a few hours or days, your employer may request you take the time as part of your holiday allowance or parental leave.
Will I get paid for being off?
Your employer is not obligated to pay you for this time off. It will be a consideration of your contractual entitlement rather than the obligation to pay you due to the statutory right. Therefore, you should check your contract of employment to see if you are entitled to be paid.
Parental leave
Until your child turns 18, you have a right to take parental leave. This time off is generally unpaid unless you have a contractual entitlement to be paid.
You can take unpaid parental to look after your child and their welfare, for example, looking after them if they are off sick from school, during school holidays or settling them into new childcare arrangements.
Each parent can take up to 18 weeks of leave for each child that can be taken up until their 18th birthday. You can take up to four weeks per year, and the time must be taken in blocks of at least a week at a time. Parents taking parental leave for a disabled child (who is entitled to Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payment) can take it in blocks of a day.
It’s important to note that your parental leave applies to your child, not your job. So, if you begin a new job, any time you have taken in your old job will remain deducted from your total 18 weeks per child.
Flexible working
From April 6, 2026, the Employment Rights Act introduces significant changes, making the right to request flexible working a “day one” right, removing the previous 26-week qualifying period. Employers must, by law, accommodate requests where possible and only refuse based on a “reasonable” application of the eight existing business grounds, with stricter consultation requirements expected.
All employees have a right to request flexible working and may be particularly useful for working parents. Flexible working is working in a way that suits you as an employee, this might be reducing your hours to spend more time with your children, working from home or making your start and finish times more flexible to work around childcare.
A new “reasonableness test” and more detailed consultation rules will be introduced with the remainder of the changes fully enforced in 2027.
If you would like to discuss any points in this article further, either as an employer or as an employee, please contact Spire Solicitors LLP on 01603 677077.
