NHS Carer's Leave

Last updated: 24 October 2026 · Figures verified against the NHS Employers 2026/27 pay circular.

By the NHS Bands Pay editorial team

Carer's leave gives NHS staff up to one week of unpaid leave a year to look after a dependant with a long-term care need. It is a day-one employment right in force since April 2024. This page explains who qualifies, how to request it, what it does to your pay and pension, and where NHS employers go further than the statutory minimum.

Around one in seven NHS staff juggles paid work with unpaid caring for a relative, and the number is growing as the population ages. Before April 2024, time off for routine caring rested on your manager's goodwill or your annual leave balance. The Carer's Leave Act 2023 changed that: caring now has its own statutory leave right, separate from parental leave, separate from emergency time off, and separate from flexible working. This page explains the right as it applies inside the NHS: the rules, the notice periods, the effect on your money, and the enhancements many trusts add on top.

What carer's leave is

Carer's leave is unpaid time off for planned, ongoing caring of a dependant with a long-term care need. Think regular help for an ageing parent, a partner with a chronic condition, or a disabled child: the kind of care that is routine and predictable rather than an emergency.

The right came into force on 6 April 2024 through the Carer's Leave Act 2023. It applies to employees in England, Scotland and Wales. Two things set it apart from most other statutory leave rights:

• It is a day-one right. You qualify from the first day of employment. There is no minimum service requirement, unlike parental leave which needs a year's service.
• The employer cannot demand evidence. Your trust cannot ask for proof of the dependant's condition or of your caring role. You declare that you are eligible when you make the request, and that is enough.

Carer's leave sits alongside, not instead of, other leave rights. It does not replace your annual leave, your right to emergency time off for dependants, or your right to request flexible working. Each covers a different situation, and this page compares them below.

Who qualifies

Two tests decide eligibility: you must be an employee (not a bank-only worker or agency contractor, though trust policies sometimes extend the right voluntarily), and the person you care for must be a dependant with a long-term care need.

A dependant for this purpose is:

• your spouse, civil partner, child or parent;
• someone who lives in the same household as you (other than a lodger, tenant, boarder or employee); or
• someone who reasonably relies on you for care, such as an elderly neighbour you regularly help.

"Long-term care need" means a physical or mental illness or injury, a disability, or issues related to old age that mean the person is likely to need care for more than three months. Short-term situations, like caring for a partner for two weeks after a routine operation, fall outside carer's leave: the emergency dependant leave right or annual leave covers those instead.

How much leave, and how it can be taken

You can take up to one week in any 12-month period. One week means the number of days you normally work in a week: five days for a full-time member of staff, fewer for part-timers. The 12-month period can be fixed by your employer (for example, the financial year) or can run from the date of your first request if your employer has not defined one.

• It does not have to be taken all at once. You can spread the week across the year as individual days or half days.
• The minimum block is half a day. You cannot take it by the hour.
• It does not carry over. Unused carer's leave at the end of the 12 months is lost; there is no payment in lieu.

For shift workers this flexibility matters. A nurse working three long days a week can take carer's leave as three single days spread across a month, rather than losing a whole calendar week. Talk to your roster coordinator early: planned leave is always easier to cover than last-minute absence, and early notice is in your own interest as well as the ward's.

Requesting carer's leave: notice and postponement

You must give notice at least twice as long as the leave you are requesting. One day of leave needs at least two days' notice; a full week needs at least two weeks. The law does not require the request in writing, but a written request that names the days you want and states that it is carer's leave leaves no room for dispute later. Email counts.

Your employer cannot refuse carer's leave, but can postpone it where there are reasonable business grounds: an inspection week, a staffing crisis, or a period the ward genuinely cannot cover. The rules on postponement are tight:

• postponement can be for no more than one month from the dates you requested;
• it must be given to you in writing within seven days of your request;
• it must explain why the leave is being postponed and offer alternative dates.

If the postponement does not follow these rules, you can take the leave on your original dates. Keep copies of your request and any reply: the whole scheme works on paper trails.

Pay during carer's leave: what a week unpaid means

Statutory carer's leave is unpaid. Your trust pays no salary for the days you take, and no unsocial-hours enhancements or overtime attach to days you are not at work. The simplest way to think about it is that one full week of carer's leave costs roughly one fifty-second of your annual salary.

Worked examples using 2026/27 pay figures (annual salary divided by 52.2, the payroll year's week count):

• Band 2 healthcare assistant (£25,272): one week unpaid costs about £484.14 in gross pay.
• Band 5 nurse at entry (£32,073): one week unpaid costs about £614.43 in gross pay.
• Band 6 nurse at entry (£39,959): one week unpaid costs about £765.50 in gross pay.

Single days cost a proportion of the weekly figure. For a part-time member of staff, the week is smaller: your week means the days you normally work, and the cost scales with your contracted hours. Our part-time pay guide shows how pro-rata pay works across the board.

One warning: because the leave is unpaid, it reduces your pensionable pay for the year by a small amount. On a single week the effect on your eventual pension is tiny, but it is real, and it is worth knowing about before you plan a pattern of regular carer's leave year after year.

Pension, progression and annual leave

Carer's leave is short enough that its side effects are modest, but they exist:

• Pension: no salary means no pension contributions for those days, employee or employer. A week a year trims a small slice off your pensionable pay; the pension contributions guide has the full tier tables if you want to see the maths.
• Pay progression: a week or two of unpaid leave does not affect your pay step date or your continuous service. The pay step guide explains how progression normally works.
• Annual leave: statutory annual leave continues to accrue during carer's leave. Your contractual AfC entitlement (27 days plus 8 bank holidays under five years' service, rising to 29 and then 33 days) is unaffected: carer's leave is too short to disturb it.

One practical tip: unpaid days reduce the month's gross pay, which can shift where you sit against tax and student-loan thresholds for that month. The effect is small for a week, but payroll queries after unpaid leave are common, so check your payslip. Our payslip guide decodes each line.

Where NHS employers go further

The statutory right is the floor, not the ceiling, and many NHS trusts build on it. Local policies vary enormously, which is why the single most useful sentence on this page is this one: read your own trust's carer's leave policy. Enhancements commonly found in the NHS include:

• Paid carer's leave. A growing number of trusts offer some or all of the week paid, either as a standalone entitlement or drawn from a carer's leave bank on top of the statutory week.
• Extra unpaid days. Some policies grant additional unpaid carer's leave beyond the statutory week for staff with heavy caring responsibilities.
• Carer's passports. Several trusts use a carer's passport: a living document agreed with your manager that records your caring responsibilities and the adjustments you need, so you do not renegotiate them with every roster change or new line manager.
• Staff carer networks. Many trusts run carers' staff networks or carer champions who can signpost support and help with tricky conversations with managers.

Occupational health and your trust's employee assistance programme can also help with the practical side: care assessments, respite options, and the emotional load of caring alongside shift work. And if caring is pushing you towards a more lasting change in hours, the flexible working guide covers your right to request it, including the day-one right to make the request that arrived in April 2024 alongside carer's leave itself.

Protection: what your employer cannot do

Carer's leave comes with the same family of protections as maternity and parental leave. It is automatically unfair to dismiss you, select you for redundancy, or subject you to any detriment (demotion, unfavourable shifts, a poor reference) because you took, requested, or plan to take carer's leave. The protection also covers the request stage: you are protected from the moment you ask.

In practice this means your carer's leave should never appear as a negative in appraisals, revalidation discussions, or promotion decisions. If it does, raise it through your trust's grievance procedure and speak to your union rep early: the law is firmly on the carer's side here, but cases are won on evidence, which is another reason to keep everything in writing.

Carer's leave vs the other leave rights

Caring-related absence in the NHS is covered by several rights that look similar but answer different questions. Getting the right one matters, because each has different notice rules and pay treatment:

The practical rule of thumb: if you can see the caring need coming, carer's leave is the right tool. If it hits without warning, the emergency dependant right applies. If you need one arrangement to run for months, look at flexible working or part-time hours rather than burning leave. Our parental leave guide covers the 18-weeks-per-child right in full for staff caring for children.

Frequently asked questions

How much carer's leave can I take each year?

Up to one week of unpaid carer's leave in any 12-month period. One week means the number of days you normally work in a week: five days for a full-time employee, fewer for part-time staff. It can be taken as individual days or half days and does not have to be taken all at once.

Is carer's leave paid?

No. Statutory carer's leave is unpaid: your trust does not pay salary for the days you take. Many NHS trusts go beyond the statutory minimum in their local policies, with some offering paid carer's leave, so check your own trust's policy before assuming the unpaid position applies to you.

Am I eligible for carer's leave from my first day?

Yes. Carer's leave is a day-one right for employees: you do not need a minimum period of NHS service to use it. The only conditions are that you are an employee and that you are caring for a dependant with a long-term care need.

Who counts as a dependant for carer's leave?

A dependant can be your spouse, civil partner, child or parent; someone who lives in the same household as you (other than a lodger, tenant, boarder or employee); or someone who reasonably relies on you for care. The person you care for must have a long-term care need: a physical or mental illness or injury, a disability, or issues related to old age that mean they are likely to need care for more than three months.

Can my employer refuse or delay carer's leave?

Your employer cannot refuse carer's leave outright, but can postpone it for up to one month where there are reasonable business grounds. Any postponement must be given in writing within seven days of your request, explaining the reason and offering alternative dates. You cannot be sacked, made redundant or treated badly for taking or requesting carer's leave.

How much notice do I have to give?

You must give notice at least twice as long as the leave you are requesting. For one day of carer's leave, that is at least two days' notice; for a full week, at least two weeks. The request does not have to be in writing by law, but putting it in writing and stating the days you want is the safest approach.

What is the difference between carer's leave and time off for dependants?

Carer's leave is planned leave for ongoing caring responsibilities: a dependant with a long-term care need. Time off for dependants covers emergencies: a child suddenly taken ill, a dependant injured, a breakdown in care arrangements. The emergency right has no set amount of time, but it is for unexpected events, not for routine or planned care.

Does carer's leave apply in Northern Ireland?

The Carer's Leave Act 2023 covers England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland has its own employment law, so the statutory right described here does not automatically apply there. NHS staff in Northern Ireland should check their trust's local policy, which may provide equivalent or better provision.