Can anyone help with this work situation?

[H0TBUZZARDY]

My child needs to attend a hospital for 12 weeks, from 9:30 until 4:30. I work full time hours 9-5, but will need to take two hours off each day to take and collect.
My question is, should I take this as annual leave? I can work flexible hours but two hours each day is more than I want to do really. Or do I have any rights to take this off as it's my child, like compassionate or something?

Anyone know?

I don't want to reduce my hours as it's only for 12 weeks and I can't really afford to

carers leave?
although where i work carers leave has now become unpaid
can you take unpaid leave?

You should have this discussion with your manager. We don't know your workplace policy

You're entitled to a a fair few weeks of unpaid parental leave

I will have the conversation but if there is a way of me being able to do it and still get paid I'd prefer that but I guess they will say unpaid leave in which case I'll say I'm doing flexi instead

My suggestion would be to speak to your employer and offer some suggestions. Keep in mind that they pay you to do a job and that your personal circumstances are not necessarily their problem.

That said, a decent employer will be sympathetic and work with you to find a solution that works for both of you.

Check your work policies. There is usually a carers/family leave but as PP said it will be unpaid.

Will they allow you to take annual leave by the hour rather than half days? Is there another parent to take a turn? Or a grandparent?

would you be able to make t he time up in future?

Yes I can take annual leave by the hour

Talk to your manager and explain the situation. There may be a way to reduce hours in the short term.

Talk to your boss to see if they have a solution. Someone in my team has to do something similar and we have been able to adjust to the situation.

they skip their lunch to make up some hours and the rest is done on compassionate grounds

How old is your child?

It's a discussion for your manager
They might have discretionary paid carers leave or they might use the national carers leave which I think might be unpaid?
They might say you can take it as X amounts of annual leave or they might say you can't use your annual leave as separate hours and will need to book whole days off
They might say you can work reduced hours for 12 weeks on full pay or might say you'll need to drop your hours for those weeks and take a pay cut
We can't know

As a manager if I had an employee in this situation I would suggest 1 day a week annual leave (annual leave system would only let this be recorded) to cover most of the hours and then the remainder, you can make it up another time as flexi. But only if you didn't want unpaid leave.

15

You have the legal right to some care leave, but in strictness that is only for an emergency. The precise detail of your entitlement and whether it is paid or unpaid depends on your employer's policy. No point asking us.

Okay thank you for the helpful replies. I will speak to my manager today

this is what we'd do at work too, assuming you have 12 days annual.leave left to use

At 15 is there any chance they would be able to get there alone and you collect (or vice versa)? You might be able to figure out an early start and working through lunch arrangement that would result in you not needing to take any leave if you could do that.

Obviously I am saying this with no knowledge whatsoever regarding why the e hospital visits are taking place or whether your child is capable/confident enough but maybe worth considering if it could work. Or is there anyone else who could help at all if not?

Otherwise I would say annual leave or unpaid carers leave would be the two obvious options.

If one of my staff asked about this I’d let them have the time off not recorded anywhere. For a situation like an ill child that is.

Two things:

15 years old - does your child need someone to take them? I think you'll get less sympathy and flexibility for a 15 year old than if they were young. (You haven't mentioned the reason for the hospital trip so I fully appreciate they may absolutely need taking).

Where is your partner in this? If s/he does one journey then working flexible hours would be much easier. If you were my member of staff I would try to be flexible as long as you were doing everything to avoid the problem (I.e had explored other options - partner, family etc).

Couldn't you drop your child off early and pick them up when you finish work? At 15 I'm sure they'd be able to sit and play on their phone while they wait.

Yes, carer's leave used to be paid at my place of work too. Until dipstick Lib Dem MP Wendy Chamberlain fought for carers' right to unpaid leave, at which point it became unpaid. She never stops congratulating herself about it, either.

💕

I think in my work it would be work flexibly to make the time up or take annual leave.

There is emergency leave but it's unpaid.

Could you do something like take half a day's leave each week then make the time up that hasn't been covered?
Can you work Saturday mornings?