As a working parent, juggling childcare and work can be difficult, and you might be concerned about managing these commitments. In this article we look at your rights as a working parent and what you are entitled to receive without compromising your career.

From 6 April 2026:

• Paternity leave became a 'day one' right, allowing parent employees to give notice of leave from the first day of employment – currently parents must have worked for their employer for 26 weeks.
• Ordinary parental leave, or unpaid parental leave, also became a 'day one' right – currently parents must have worked for their employer for 1 year to be eligible.
• The restriction on taking paternity leave after shared parental leave was removed.
• Eligible fathers and partners are able to take up to 52 weeks of unpaid bereaved partner's paternity leave if the mother or primary adopter dies – they must take this leave within 52 weeks of the child's birth (including surrogacy), adoption placement, or entry to Great Britain for overseas adoptions.

Time off to look after your child

If you are an employee, you are allowed to take time off for emergencies, for example, if your child is unwell and cannot attend childcare (for example, if they have something contagious like chickenpox) and you have no childcare.

There is no prescribed amount of how much time off you can take to deal with an emergency situation; you are allowed a ‘reasonable’ amount of time, usually considered to be up to two days. However, if you need an extended amount of time off, more than a few hours or days, your employer may request you take the time as part of your holiday allowance or parental leave.

Will I get paid for being off?

Your employer is not obligated to pay you for this time off. It will be a consideration of your contractual entitlement rather than the obligation to pay you due to the statutory right. Therefore, you should check your contract of employment to see if you are entitled to be paid.

Parental leave

Until your child turns 18, you have a right to take parental leave. This time off is generally unpaid unless you have a contractual entitlement to be paid.

You can take unpaid parental leave to look after your child and their welfare, for example, caring for them when they are off sick from school, during school holidays, or when settling them into new childcare arrangements.

Each parent can take up to 18 weeks of leave for each child that can be taken up until their 18th birthday. You can take up to four weeks per year, and the time must be taken in blocks of at least a week at a time. Parents taking parental leave for a disabled child (who is entitled to Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payment) can take it in blocks of a day.

It’s important to note that your parental leave applies to your child, not your job. So, if you begin a new job, any time you have taken in your old job will remain deducted from your total 18 weeks per child.

Flexible working

Since 6 April 2024, all employees have had the right to request flexible working from the first day of employment.

Flexible working may be particularly useful for working parents. It is a way of working that suits both the employee and employer and might include reducing hours, working from home, compressed hours, job sharing or adjusting start and finish times around childcare commitments.

Employees can make up to two statutory flexible working requests in a 12-month period, and employers must deal with requests in a reasonable manner. While employers can still refuse requests for one of the statutory business reasons, further reforms are expected to strengthen the requirements around consultation and the reasonableness of refusals.

If you would like to discuss any points in this article further, either as an employer or as an employee, please contact Spire Solicitors LLP on 01603 677077.