My son has had a serious wrist injury, and my wife says she won’t give up work to look after him. Could I take paternity leave?
Paternity leave must be taken before the child is two months old. You are entitled to take time off to cope with an emergency involving a dependant relative, but this means you are, for example, entitled to take your son to the doctor, not stay at home with him for a week while he recovers. However if you have worked for your employer for more than a year you can take up to four weeks’ unpaid parental leave per child per year. Whether you can take this immediately, or whether you have to give your employer notice, will depend on your employment contract.