What flexible working rights do parent carers have?

Every employee, including parent carers, has had a day-one right to request flexible working since 6 April 2024: up to two requests a year, decided within two months, with the employer consulting before any refusal.

There is no separate carer right: it is the universal right

This is the point most carer-charity pages blur. A parent who cares for a disabled or SEND child does not have an enhanced or carer-specific flexible-working entitlement. They use the same statutory right that every employee has under the Employment Rights Act 1996, as amended by the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023. The request can be for any change to hours, times, or place of work, and the employee does not have to be a carer to make one. Practically, that means you cannot demand proof of caring responsibilities or a diagnosis for their child as a condition of considering the request. The request stands or falls on the business grounds, not the reason behind it.

The four things the law requires of you

Since 6 April 2024 the old 26-week qualifying period has gone, so the right applies from the first day of employment. Beyond that, the procedure is fixed:

1. An employee may make up to two requests in any rolling 12-month period.
2. You must make a final decision, including any appeal, within two months of the request, unless you agree a longer period with the employee.
3. You must consult the employee before refusing. You cannot reject a request you have not discussed with them, unless you are agreeing to it in full.
4. You must handle the request in a reasonable manner.

What you can lawfully refuse

You can only turn a request down for one of eight business reasons set out in the Employment Rights Act 1996: extra costs that damage the business; an inability to reorganise work among existing staff; an inability to recruit more staff; a detrimental effect on quality; a detrimental effect on performance; an inability to meet customer demand; not enough work during the periods the employee proposes to work; or planned structural changes to the business. If none of these genuinely applies, you should be agreeing to the request. The reason the employee gave, caring for a disabled child, is never itself a ground for refusal, and refusing a carer's request without good reason can also raise a discrimination question under the Equality Act 2010.

What is about to change, and the right not to confuse it with

The direction of travel matters for any decision you take now. Under the Employment Rights Act 2025, you will only be able to refuse a request where doing so is reasonable, you will have to explain in writing why your chosen ground applies, and you will have to follow a new statutory rejection process. A Government consultation opened on 5 February 2026 and the changes are expected in 2027, so today's eight-reasons position is set to tighten. Keep flexible working distinct from carer's leave, which is a separate day-one right to one week's unpaid leave each year to care for a dependant. That is a different mechanism, and one you cannot refuse, only postpone.

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