Flexible working

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Flexible working for parents of older children

From 6 April 2009 the right to request flexible working was extended to parents of a child aged under 17. Previously the right applied to parents of a child aged under 6. However, if a child is disabled, the right continues to apply as before to parents of a child aged under 18. Before the extension of the right to parents of older children was implemented, an independent review was carried out to consider the age to which the cut-off should be raised and whether the increase should be staged.

The review was published in May 2008. The recommendations were that:

The age cut-off should be under 17; and
The increase should be made in a single step and not staged.

Following the recommendations, the government issued a further consultation paper and partial impact assessment (see www.berr.gov.uk/files/file47434.pdf) on a limited number of issues around implementation and guidance. A summary of the consultation document is available here: Flexible working for parents of older children (PDF, 2 pages, 56KB) LGE's response to the consultation on behalf of local government is available here.

More details on the existing right to request are available below.

Right to request flexible working

Since April 2003 parents of a child under the age of six with 26 weeks’ continuous service have been able to request a variation to their contract so that they can work more flexibly. Since 6 April 2009, that right was extended to parents of a child aged under 17.

Changes which relate to hours, times and place of work can be requested. Employers have a duty to consider requests seriously and can refuse only where one of the following business reasons apply:

the burden of additional costs
detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand
inability to re-organise work among existing staff
inability to recruit additional staff
detrimental impact on quality
detrimental impact on performance
insufficiency of work during the periods the employee proposes to work
planned structural changes

If a change is agreed, it will be permanent and there will be no right to revert back to the former arrangement.

Advisory Bulletin 463 sets out the provisions in detail.

Advisory Bulletin 463.doc (Word doc, 84KB)
Advisory Bulletin 463.pdf (PDF, 192KB)

Note: As well as the extension of the right to parents of an older child and carers (see below) a number of minor amendments have been made to this right which have applied since 6 April 2007:

special guardians have the right to request
an application can be made up to the child’s 6th or 18th birthday, rather than 2 weeks before this
the definition of partner has been amended – see below

Right to request flexible working extended to carers

Carers have had the right to request flexible working since 6 April 2007. A request can be made by an employee with 26 weeks’ continuous service who cares or expects to care for a person who is 18 or over where the person in need of care is:

married to or the partner or civil partner of the employee, or
a relative of the employee, or
living at the same address as the employee

Partner covers men and women who are not married but are living together as husband and wife and two people of the same sex who are not civil partners but are living together as if they are civil partners.

Relative is defined as mother, father, adopter, guardian, special guardian, parent-in-law, step-parent, son, step-son, son-in-law, daughter, step-daughter, daughter-in-law, brother, step-brother, brother-in-law, sister, step-sister, sister-in-law, uncle, aunt or grandparent and includes adoptive relationships and relationships of the full blood or half blood - e.g. half-brother or half-sister will also be covered. In the case of an adopted person, the above relationships that would have existed but for the adoption are also covered i.e. the adopted person’s natural relatives.

This right to request flexible working applies in a similar way to the existing right for parents of children under 17 or disabled children under 18. Once a request is made, the employer has a duty to give the request serious consideration, but the employee does not have a unilateral right to alter their working pattern.

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