Blog
Welcome to our blog where we explore news, policy developments and best practice ideas relating to how parents and carers can fully meet their work and caring responsibilities, and how their employers can best support them.
In the interests of open debate and the exploration of new ideas, any views expressed here may not necessarily represent the formal view of Working Families.
Working Families Index Panel Discussion: Making Flex More Accessible to All
How do we make sure the conversation around flexibility reaches everyone that needs it? It’s not always easy to say, ‘I need flexible working’, so how can employers help facilitate those discussions? As the webinar launch of the Working Families Index highlighted, the answer lies in communication and trust.
Arnold Clark is proud to support flexible working.
Following a challenging 18 months, and huge changes to working lives, Arnold Clark wanted to move forward by offering employees increased flexibility and introducing new approaches to working so that they could all enjoy an improved work-life balance and have time for the commitments they care about.
Why can’t we have it all?
This year we’ve been delighted to have the opportunity to collaborate with King’s College on some vital new research to address an overlooked area in the context of family friendly policy and practice: job quality, and the trade-offs people make when they become parents.
Pro Bono Week 2021 – Volunteering during the pandemic
For Pro Bono Week 2021, Esther Quarcoo, a volunteer at Working Families who joined in the summer of 2020, tells us why she chose to volunteer with the charity.
The pandemic smashed all of our worlds apart
I’d like to say I saw the flexible working revolution coming, because way back in 2014 I was already bringing it to employees at Dixons / Carphone as their Group HR director, but I don’t think anyone can really claim to have understood how much of an impact the pandemic would make on the world we work in now. I think it’s brought the process forward by at least ten years.
The big question that businesses aren’t answering
As we mark National Work Life Week this year, we’re witnessing a massive revolution in our world of work, accelerated by in part by new technology, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, legislative and regulatory changes, climate concerns and the pressing need to resolve social inequalities.
New proposals on flexible working are a big step forward for parents and carers
The proposals on flexible working that the government has outlined today, particularly the plan to give people the right to request flexible working from day one in a job, are a big step forward.
Q&A with Helen Humphreys – new Chair of the Board of Trustees
A Q&A with Helen Humphreys who took over as Chair on 1 September, 2021 after her appointment was confirmed at a meeting of the Board on 29 July, 2021.
Building back better for working parents: what our new #FlexTheUK survey tells us
Last summer, when we launched #FlexTheUK to campaign for a permanent, people-centred change towards flexible working post-pandemic, I don’t think any of us could have predicted quite what a long, tumultuous year of lockdowns and restrictions we still had ahead of us.
Building back better over the next three years
At the core of our work is a determination to empower parents and carers to understand and use their workplace rights. There are three clear strands to how we view our work: empowering working parents and carers, supporting employers, and driving policy change.
‘Seize the opportunity of making flexible working the norm’ says Minister
We welcome calls for flexible working to be ‘normalised’ by employers: now we need a new Employment Bill to make it law
How can the government best support parents when they need it most?
We must remember that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (under which workers can be ‘furloughed’) won’t last forever. The wider issue is that there is currently no statutory paid leave entitlement parents can fall back on when, for example, their childcare arrangements unravel unexpectedly.