Maternity, paternity and adoption - an overview

Time off for dependants

All employees have the right to a reasonable amount of unpaid time off to deal with an emergency involving a dependant. A dependant is a spouse, partner, child or parent or a person who lives with the employee (but not a lodger). In some circumstances it could also be someone else who reasonably relies on the employee for care, eg an elderly neighbour.

Employees can take leave when:

• a dependant falls ill, or is injured or assaulted - including mental illness or injury, eg emotional distress
• a dependant goes into labour

or when they need to:

• make longer-term care arrangements for a dependant who is ill or injured
• arrange or attend a dependant's funeral
• deal with an unexpected problem in care arrangements, eg if a childminder fails to turn up
• deal with an incident involving the employee's child during school hours, eg suspension from school

How much time off can an employee take?

The right is to reasonable time off. This amount of time isn't fixed - it should simply allow the employee to deal with the immediate problem and put any other necessary care arrangements in place. For example, an employee would not normally be able to take two weeks off to care for a sick child, but they could take one or two days to take the child to the doctor and arrange for someone else to look after him or her.

Refusing time off

Employees who think that you have unreasonably refused to give them time off, or feel they have suffered for taking time off, can make a claim to an employment tribunal.

It would also be an unfair dismissal if you were to dismiss or make an employee redundant for taking - or trying to take - time off in this way.

Read a guide to taking time off in an emergency on the DTI website.

Subjects covered in this guide

• Introduction
• When an employee is pregnant
• Health and safety of new and expectant mothers
• Maternity pay
• Returning to work after maternity leave
• Paternity pay
• Adoption pay
• Maternity, paternity and adoption leave
• Parental leave
• Time off for dependants
• Family-friendly ways of working

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