Campaigning for parents

10:51am Thursday 5th June 2008

An extra four-and-a-half million parents in Britain will get the right to request flexible working, including many in Harrow, following the publication of an independent review prepared for the Government.

The Department of Business, where I work as a Minister, has accepted the recommendations in the review to extend the right to request flexible working to parents of children up to the age of 16. The Government will now be consulting on implementing the proposals.

This will give a big boost to busy parents who need more help balancing work and family life. It can also help employers who often find they get the best out of mums and dads when they allow them to work flexibly.

Employers will need to retain some control over deciding whether and how it suits their businesses to allow people to work flexibly, but extending the right to request to parents of older children will allow families to take priority when decisions are being made in businesses about flexible working.

Support for more flexible and creative ways of working has been important over the past 10 years. Flexible working arrangements include working from home, part-time work, compressed hours, flexi-time and other similar arrangements. These allow for people to grow their careers, help people to make the most of their potential and to look after their families. The review found, in particular, that flexible working should not be considered as just an issue for women, with 14 million employees currently working flexibly and the latest figures showing men making up 45 per cent of that figure.

The challenges which parents with older children face are considerable, and the arguments for raising the age to 16 are compelling. After all, families are the framework of our lives. Parents want both to earn a living and do the best they can in bringing up their children, but need more flexibility at work.

We've already built a strong foundation of support for families, with the right to request flexible working to parents of children up to the age of six already and improved maternity and paternity rights.

Every parent knows, however, that the demands of parental responsibility don't end at the age of six, which is why we're going to extend the right to request flexible work to parents with older children.

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