Carer leave? Am confused and need help

[Tangofantastic]

Can anyone help me with what I might help entitled too before I request it tomorrow?
i have used up all my a/l for this year (new leave year starts 1.1.24) and we have to use 4 days over Xmas (this has been made mandatory by CEO) so my balance is sitting at 0.
I’ve just found out my daughter (7 if relevant) is due to have urgent surgery on 4th December and will be in hospital for 5 days and then recovering at home and isolating for 10 days so 2 weeks in total. Expected to be a tough recovery with round the clock pain relief etc.
would this fall under carer leave? And if so would it be paid or unpaid? I’m a single mum on low income so unpaid would hit hard but obviously my daughter comes first and if I have to take it unpaid I’ll cut my cloth etc.

I work from home so imagine even if I’m entitled to some days they’ll expect me to be signed on and working for at least the second week though I think from sounds of recovery I’ll still find this tricky to balance. It crossed my mind to ask my (supportive) GP signed off with stress due to caring those 2 weeks if they say no, but I’d really rather not go down that route if I don’t need to.

2 points that might help:
I can’t request to take off time from next year’s allowance as I need the full annual leave year to cover school holidays for my 2 kids who are both Primary aged, one with additional needs (not the one who is having this surgery).

And I work in Scotland but for an English company in case that affects carer leave entitlement - my cursory google
seemed to throw up some discrepancies between the nations!

any advice v welcome, and thank you so so much.

Carer leave doesn't have to be paid, that would be up to your company policies.

Do you get sick pay? Because if unpaid leave would be impossible for you to tolerate then id be tempted to do sick leave and ask GP to sign you off for 2 weeks with stress. It's not ideal, I usually wouldn't advocate lying about sick leave but needs must.

My understanding is that the law on this is the same for England and Scotland

www.gov.uk/time-off-for-dependants

Google unpaid parental leave, this is what your circumstances would fall under if you don't want to take annual leave.

On the government website it lists what you need to do to ask for it etc.

This would be unpaid unless your employer gives paid parental time but from our experience that doesn't happen often enough.

I do get sick pay and haven’t had a day off all this year so I wondered about having my
gp sign me off sick, It just doesn’t feel great doing it as I won’t actually be so stressed I need to be “off sick” (well not likely anyway). I would struggled with 2 weeks unpaid right before Xmas ☹️

If you work from home will your work be flexible with hours? My kids haven’t been sick for more than one day at a time but I just work at home if they are and just make up any time that I spend checking on them.

Do you get universal credit? Will that make up the shortfall?

In my workplace, five days emergency/ carers leave is paid within a 12 month period. Additional days would be unpaid. What does your special leave policy at work say?

I don’t know-can’t find my original contract (been there nearly 10 years) so will need to ask that question tomorrow. Problem is it’s a tiny company so no HR dept so am guessing it will be largely down to HOD and CEO. And I’ve no idea how sympathetic / helpful they will be as it’s a busy time for us just now right up until Xmas ☹️

I can be relatively flexible but not hugely as most of our enquiries come in between 8-5 and they like me to respond promptly 😵‍💫

I’m literally just over threshold for UC 🤦‍♀️