Parent of disabled child working rights

[tappingout]

Hello,
I'm hoping someone sees this post who knows a little about working rights when a parent of a disabled child.

I work part time (23.5 hours a week over 2.5 days)
My son is registered disabled with physical needs and autism, global development delay, learning disability.

When he has appointments I always try my best to arrange on days off where I can. Some clinics run on set days, for those I request Annual leave. My boss always says to do time owing instead which is really difficult some times if I have no childcare. Her reason was in January she stopped all annual leave for the first week (appt was 3rd) December she has now stopped all leave due to people being more likely to be sick and I've requested for July and she won't answer my email.

My mum is my childcare and I always book annual leave when she is away. Not been an issue for last 4 years to book in advance as soon as I had dates. Now we are not allowed to book until January of that year. I'm really stressed if I can't get the dates I need I have no childcare options. His school do not do wrap around care as it's a specialist school and he can't attend summer clubs etc.

Do I have any legal working rights around his appointments/ childcare. I've worked for them for nearly 8 years, I've been loyal and hard working when things have gone south, my workload it triple that of the full time staff as in her words 'I'm more trusted and due diligent' yet get treated shitty when trying to do the best by my son

You are allowed to take unpaid parental leave for a day at a time for pre planned things like appointments. It is a legal requirement and lasts until they are 18. I think you get a certain number of weeks overall and can use up to 4 weeks worth each year. Look up parental leave on the gov website.

I already have. It says although they can't refuse it, they can postpone it. I know my boss, and she 100% would pull the postpone card to make it difficult!

Your employer can only postpone it once and can only do that if they can show that the functioning of the business would be unduly disrupted by your absence.

I am concerned that you say your manager is refusing all annual leave, apparently on the basis that people might be sick. That raises real concerns. She doesn't have to agree to you taking holidays on your preferred dates, but she cannot stop holidays completely.