How do we support a working parent of a SEND child?

Lead with flexibility, and treat caring as protected

Offer flexibility: from day one a SEND parent can take a week’s unpaid carer’s leave a year and request flexible working, and is protected from associative disability discrimination (2024 law). SEND is the shorthand schools use for special educational needs and disabilities. A parent juggling appointments, education, health and care plan meetings and reduced-timetable mornings does not need a formal diagnosis for any of the levers below to apply, so do not wait for one before you act.

Grant the three statutory levers you can act on this week

First, carer’s leave. Every employee has a day-one right to up to one week of unpaid carer’s leave each rolling year to care for a dependant with a long-term care need, which includes a child who is disabled under the Equality Act 2010. It can be taken in half or whole days, you cannot refuse it (though you may postpone it briefly, in writing, if it would cause serious disruption), and you cannot ask for proof of caring GOV.UK. Acas confirms the leave is unpaid unless you choose to pay it Acas.

Second, a flexible-working request. Since 6 April 2024 this is a day-one right too, the 26-week qualifying period having been removed Flexible Working (Amendment) Regulations 2023. Your employee can make two requests in any 12 months, you must consult before refusing, and you must decide within two months SI 2024/438. It is a right to request, not an automatic right to work flexibly, so any refusal has to rest on one of the statutory business grounds.

Third, unpaid parental leave. After a year’s service an employee gets 18 weeks of unpaid parental leave per child up to age 18, normally a maximum of four weeks a year in whole-week blocks. The lever most employers miss: where the child is disabled, that leave can be taken in single days GOV.UK. Single days are exactly what the steady drip of SEND appointments, reviews and reduced-timetable mornings needs.

The legal floor you must not breach

Here is the line the goodwill guidance buries. A working parent of a disabled child is protected from associative disability discrimination. Direct discrimination law bites where someone is treated less favourably “because of” a protected characteristic, and the wording does not require the person to hold that characteristic themselves Equality Act 2010, s.13. So refusing flexible working out of hand, passing the parent over for promotion, or making remarks about their caring role can be unlawful disability discrimination, not merely a policy choice, even though the employee is not disabled themselves. Costing the absence is a separate question; see how much unpaid carer absence costs UK employers.

This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.