It is often forgotten that employees have the right to take unpaid time off to deal with family emergencies, regardless of the length of service.
The regulations say that employees are entitled to a reasonable period of unpaid time off during working hours to deal with an emergency involving a dependent. Normally, this will be a maximum of one or two days. A dependant will normally mean a spouse, child, parent, co-habitee or any other person in the same household (but not a tenant, lodger or boarder).
The right is designed to enable people deal with an unexpected or sudden problem and to make any necessary longer term arrangements. Examples include assisting with an ill or injured dependant, unexpected disruption of care arrangements, to deal with an unexpected problem at school or the death of a dependant.
The employee should inform the line manager of the reason for the absence as soon as is reasonably practicable and its expected length. It is a good idea to make sure that employees know about this unpaid right and that it is not acceptable to claim sick leave to deal with family emergencies as that is an abuse of the sick leave procedure.
It's worth remembering that if you dismiss someone for asserting this right, even if they have been employed for less than a year, they will be able to claim automatic unfair dismissal. Always follow a fair procedure before dismissing.
For more information see
http://www.dti.gov.uk/er/time_off_deps.htm
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