Renfrewshire Council

What you need to check first

When you receive a request for carer's leave from a team member, you should check they are on the Carer's Register. Read about what the Carer's register is. 

Before you review their request, you should check they are listed on the Carers Register.

Read  How to approve a Carers Leave Request form in Business World [763KB] .

Things to consider

When making your decision, you should take into consideration:

• the carer's relationship to their relative or partner
• the nature of the relative or partner's illness
• the expected duration of the leave
• any operational impact or costs on service delivery 
• if your team member's work needs to be redistributed.

Your team member only needs to tell you details they are comfortable sharing with you and will help you decide about their request. 

The Carer Passport [217KB] can help you have the conversation about with your team member about their caring responsibilities.

You should inform your team member of your decision as soon as you can. You should not take more than 14 days to let them know the outcome. 

Approving or declining the request

If you approve the request for carer's leave, the employee will receive an alert to confirm this.

If you decline the request for carer's leave, you'll need to choose a business reason from the drop down list on the form.

There may be reasons why the carer can't apply or take Carer's Leave. They:

• may not be eligible for Carer's Leave
• have taken all their Carer's Leave already
• Carer's Leave may not be the appropriate leave to be used on this occasion.

You can email Fiona Sinclair at fiona.sinclair@renfrewshire.gov.uk or Ian Whyte at ian.whyte@renfrewshire.gov.uk to discuss.

You may need to consider other options with your team member, such as special leave, annual leave, flexitime or unpaid leave. 

Contact the HR and OD team at hrpolicy@renfrewshire.gov.uk if you need advice.