Time off for dependants

[Erinybob]

Hello I’m looking for some advice.
my partner and I have a two year old child, last week he had a illness that meant he could not go to the childminders for 3 days and we exhausted our childcare options which is limited so we needed to work care between us.
my work (NHS) were fantastic I had one day off and other worked from home.
However my partners work were not. In the past he’s been told he needs to use annual leave for time off with our child sick unless it’s first day as we should sort childcare (which we can’t do) so requested it for the second day and was denied explained that is was for time off with son and he would still need to take this was told by his line manager they did not expect him in due to circumstances and he contacted them the morning of the time off to repeat that we had no childcare. He went back the next day and invited to investigation meeting regarding the unauthorised leave, went to this meeting today and they said it’s due to him requesting leave and it being denied and now looking at formal disciplinary route.
we have all the evidence of our son being unwell and no childcare.
where do we stand legally as my understanding is they can’t deny time off for child but using the loophole they created previously telling him he needed to use annual leave.

[ULA]

In terms of time off for family and dependents then an employee is allowed time off to deal with an emergency involving a dependant such as your child.

What you are allowed is reasonable amount of time off to deal with the emergency, but there is no set amount of time as it depends on the situation. A relevant example would be if your child falls ill you could take time off to go to the doctor and make care arrangements. Your employer may then ask you to take annual leave or parental leave if you want to look after your child for longer.