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Introduction
Family friendly employment describes the initiatives, policies and practices that enable employees to create an effective work-life balance. This can include paid employment breaks, such as maternity and paternity leave for parents with babies and flexible working hours. The Government has an important role in legislating for minimum standards on family friendly employment and for employee rights. Employers also play a vital role in allowing the flexibility which fits in with individual employee needs.
What is flexible working?
Flexible working usually means a working pattern that is an alternative to the standard, full time working week where employees change the hours and times they work as well as the place they work from. In general this works well where it suits both the employer and employee.
Who is legally entitled to request flexible working hours?
The legal right to request flexible working was granted to parents of children under the age of six (or disabled children under the age of 18) in April 2003 in the Employment Act 2002. Under the law, employers are required to consider seriously such requests. The right to request will be extended to carers of dependent adults in April 2007 under the Work and Families Act 2006. Employers can refuse requests on specified legitimate business grounds. The Working Families Act 2006 also introduced additional statutory paternity leave and pay for new fathers, which entititles them to a new right of up to 26 weeks, some of which could be paid if the mother returns to work. The NSPCC supports this, although we are concerned that many fathers may not be able to afford to take up these new rights.
Why should the right to request flexible working be extended to all parents?
The NSPCC welcomes the right to request flexible working for parents and carers, but the current law is only available to a minority of parents. All children, no matter how old, need support from their parents. We strongly believe that the application for flexible and reduced hours working should be available for any parent with a child living at home with them who is under the age of 18.
Why are family friendly employment practices important for the welfare of a child?
The NSPCC is concerned about the impact that parents working long and inflexible hours can have on a child's emotional health, well-being and safety. We would like to see a change in the UK's working culture that recognises that children's well-being is an important and relevant consideration in the wider debate on employment matters and that employers' policies and practices can make it harder for parents to care for their children properly.
What is the NSPCC Family Friendly Employer of the Year Award?
In 2003 the NSPCC joined forces with Working Families to launch the NSPCC Family Friendly Employer of the Year Award, which recognises the achievements of companies who have introduced employment policies and practices that benefit parents and their children. The NSPCC award is one of several organised by Working Families, the UK's leading work-life balance campaign organisation.
The Awards are open to public and private sector employers from all over the UK.
What the NSPCC is calling for
To Government:
To employers:
Copyright © 2006 NSPCC - All rights reserved. National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Weston House, 42
Curtain Road, London EC2A 3NH. Incorporated by Royal Charter. Registered charity number 216401. NSPCC, charity registered in Scotland, charity number SC037717.