Working Families Strategy 2024 – 2029
“The path to building a stronger future lies in developing diverse, productive and happy workplaces that empower individuals with caring responsibilities to contribute fully to the economy while maintaining harmonious family lives. And at Working Families, we’re ready to help make this happen.”
Jane van Zyl, CEO
“As we look ahead to the next five years, our role as a champion for change in promoting and facilitating flexible working has never been more crucial.”
Helen Humphreys – Chair
Our vision
We want to achieve a society in which everyone can fully meet their work and caring responsibilities, and where all parents and carers have an equal opportunity to find and progress in secure, paid work.
Our mission
Our mission is to remove the barriers that people with caring responsibilities face in the workplace.
Our Values
We are collaborative. We work alongside like-minded partners to maximise achievement of our shared goals.
We are practical. We see the whole picture and use this authoritative perspective to deliver tangible support to families and employers.
We are inclusive. We strive to ensure that our work reaches a full range of families and employers.
We are driven. We leverage our collective knowledge, commitment, and skills to do an expert job for our beneficiaries, supporters, and colleagues.
Who we are
Policy and advocacy
We drive policy change to support those with caring responsibilities who are in employment.
Legal Advice
We directly empower thousands of parents and carers to access the outcomes that they need in their working lives through our free legal advice service
Employer Services
We support employers to create genuinely flexible and productive workplaces through our employer membership programme
Why we’re needed
- 75% of mothers and 90% of fathers in the UK are employed.
- 50% of families with one child have both parents working full-time; this drops to 40% for families with three or more children.
- Only 30% of mothers have an agreed flexible working arrangement.
- Only 20% of fathers have an agreed flexible working arrangement.
- 40% of lower-income working parents have gone into debt to pay for childcare.
- Over 50% of lower-income parents have reduced their working hours to manage childcare.
The Working Families LAS Deep Dive report from 2023/2024 revealed that;
- More than 1 million working parents and carers accessed our legal advice pages.
- 98% of the parents and carers we advised on our helpline felt better informed
- We provided personalised legal advice to over 1,500 parents and carers via phone and e-mail.
- Around 60% of our clients last year were from households earning below the minimum Income Standard (MIS) – that’s around double the proportion in the UK population.
- 1 in 2 outcomes survey respondents who had contacted us for benefits advice increased their household income.
- Our advisers supported our helpline users to access over £150,000 in unclaimed benefits.
Our objectives
2024-2029
Over the next five years, we will work to ensure that more people with caring responsibilities have the opportunity to attain and thrive within secure and flexible jobs. Our objectives provide a roadmap for achieving this and will not change until we have achieved our mission and our vision.
Objective 1
Parents and carers are informed and empowered to make use of their employment rights and entitlements to enter and stay in work
- Reach more parents through our legal advice service, with a focus on those with least access to justice, including innovating new delivery methods
- Expand our brand awareness/digital presence
- Increase user involvement and co-creation of our Legal Advice Service, through collaboration with partners
As a result, we want;
- Parents and carers to be informed of their employment rights and entitlements at the start of parenting and caring
- Parents and carers to be informed of their employment rights and entitlements when they need it
- Parents and carers to feel empowered to use their rights and entitlements to stay in work.
Objective 2
Employers offer and promote flexible and family friendly working practices and opportunities
- Influence the policy, practices and culture of the largest possible number of employers through our employer services, providing membership, and a range of products and services
- Influence SME’s policy and practice by developing a range of products and services specifically tailored to smaller employers
- Expand our brand awareness/digital presence
As a result, we want;
- All employers to advertise jobs as flexible across sectors and roles
- People working flexibly in the wider employee population
- Employers offering enhanced leave for increased periods
Objective 3
Policymakers legislate and act to create a policy framework that provides a baseline of rights and entitlements for working parents and carers.
- Influence any future Employment Bill and other legislative and policy opportunities
- Create new alliances and influencing through the APPG on Flexible and Family Friendly Working
- Expand our brand awareness and digital presence
As a result, we want;
- A reduced proportion of parents who report that they aren’t working flexibly but would like to
- An increase in the average length of parental leave taken by poorer households and fathers
- A lower proportion of parents saying they didn’t have enough leave due to financial concerns
To ensure we can best serve working parents during the period of this strategy, we will:
- Put the needs of parents and carers at the heart of all we do
- Promote research to bring evidence for change in workplaces
- Build our profile, engagement and influence to grow our support and impact
- Invest in growing sustainable unrestricted income
- Make Working Families a great charity to work for and with