Staying off work when child is ill

[abracadabra]

Hi
I went back to work 4 weeks ago and it's all been going fine. However dd is not well and so I have had to stay at home with her today. Just wondering what generally happens - do you have to take annual leave or do employers have some other way of dealing with this usually?

Thanks

My employer will let me take it as carers leave although this is unpaid.

You can either take it as annual leave or as carers leave which is usually unpaid.

where i used to work all the parents would take it off as sick leave which was paid... think that our employer was pretty good about it and understood that if your child is ill then you needd to be with them.. otherwise you wouldn't be left with much annual leave the rate babies get ill in their first few months at nursery!

Depends on the company policy. At worst you have to take it as unpaid, but if you are luck you will still be paid some or all of your salary. I am lucky where I work and I still get full pay. That said my DH and I share kids sick days as men are equally as entitled to take off days to look after a sick dependant.

Time off for dependants is a statutory right for unpaid leave to care for a child in these circumstances. Covers initial emergency (has to be unplanned and unexpected like sickness or childminder ill etc) and be a dependant (immediate relative or dependant living in same house. Covers reasonable time (1-2 days suggested) to make alternative arrangements.

You cant' be disciplined for this or sacked, regardless of the number of occasions however be sure to follow your employers absence policy with regard to notifying them and keeping them informed etc.

Some employers go over and above this or offer holiday or swapping days etc

what chocolate kimmy said but just to add lots of employers do have a policy, formal or informal, of turning a bit of a blind eye and allowing the employee to have it paid.
Companies I've worked with have often done this if it's the odd day or two, but if it got to be frequent or obviously for longer periods of time, it would be a choice for the employee to either have annual leave or take it unpaid.
As others have said, really depends on what the policy or practice of the employer is, how family friendly and tolerant of this thing they are. Keeping your employer informed of what's happening and also demonstrating that you are committed by taking some work home on those days, or trying to sort out alternative care if and as soon as you can will go a long way to earning some goodwill and brownie points which in turn will mean it's more likely when you do have to take the odd day off that it won't be a problem.