Section Menu

Balancing the needs of parents, children and employers

The Rt. Hon. John Hutton MP,  Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform
The Treasury, London,  11 June 2008

Thank you Polly, and thanks to the Daycare Trust for your invitation to take part in this important debate about the future of the flexible working agenda.

For many parents and carers, trying to balance work and family life is a major issue. At times it is a really serious problem.

Many of you here today who deliver services to parents will know that well.

The job of Government is to try and help people to find solutions that are first and foremost right for them. Not to be prescriptive or to impose any particular model. But to use our influence and resources in a way that provides options and alternatives to parents.

The right to request flexible working has been one such example of this approach. Six million people currently have this right. After the Imelda Walsh Review, so will another 4.5 million parents of older children.

Today I would like to say a few words about the direction ahead for the flexible working reforms, and the right balance we need to strike between employers and employees.

And also how, I believe, these reforms are leading the way in showing us how we can deliver better workplaces over the next decade. And that’s got to be an important priority for us too. Where decisions are made between dialogue and mutual consent of employers and employees – not by prescriptive legislation.

Walsh review response

Firstly, let me say how pleased I was that the Daycare Trust, like many organisations, reacted so positively last month to Imelda Walsh’s proposals to extend the right to request flexible working to parents of children up to the age of 16.

I am certain that by accepting these recommendations, we will give a big boost to busy parents who need more help juggling their childcare with their working lives and their careers.

You were right, Alison, in your response on the day to highlight that for many parents, the teenage years in particular can be some of the most challenging in terms of childcare. That was certainly my own experience.

This is especially true at crucial times, such as the run-up to GCSEs, when of course many parents want to give their children as much practical support as possible – even if it is just making sure their sons or daughters are actually revising when they say they are.

We now need to get the implementation of this reform right. We will shortly be setting out our views on how we think we can best do this.

Alongside seeking your views on how best to implement the extension of the right to request flexible working, we also want your opinions on how we can make this as easy and straightforward as possible for employers too. Because they are the partners in this process as well.

We are looking at simplifying the guidance available and whether the process of the right to request flexible working can be streamlined. This would benefit both business and employees. And it is important that we make this legislation simple and easy to comply with.

We are also planning a campaign to raise awareness of flexible working rights for both employees and businesses which will begin in the next few weeks.

Evidence shows that a large proportion of male employees (about 42%) with children under 6 are almost completely unaware of their right to request flexible working. Anecdotal evidence suggests that many people with caring responsibilities for adults are also unaware or sometimes unclear about their rights. Equally, some employers are unsure how to handle requests to work flexibly and may be incurring unnecessary costs in the process. We should try to help them with that too.

The campaign will focus on these key groups, raising awareness of both the individuals’ right to request flexible working, and helping business understand how to handle requests through more effective use of tools and advice available through the BusinessLink website.

And how are we doing so far?

I believe the right to request has been successful precisely because it has been well targeted, weighing up the needs of business with employees who stood to benefit.

We should continue to take employers with us as we extend to parents of older children. Continuing progress depends on both employers and employees believing that we have struck a fair balance.

Throughout the development and implementation of these reforms, we’ve worked closely with business and I think rightly so – adopting a light-touch approach to ensure benefits rather than burdens for employers and employees. And this approach has brought results.

The majority of employers – 91% - tend to agree to requests for flexible working. We know flexible working is an established practice in many workplaces, and was well before this legislation was introduced, – with over 14 million employees, including part-time workers, actually working flexibly.

Employers recognise that they can get the best out of mums and dads when they allow them to work flexibly. Helping them retain skilled workers. Rewarding commitment and loyalty. Helping companies remain successful as a result.

The debate over flexible working often seems to become distorted.

I think the view that the more you extend flexible working the better it is for everyone fundamentally misunderstands how it can help families. The Government will always put families first and that means focussing the right to request on parents and carers.

If we gave all employees the right to request, then I think businesses would have no basis on which to prioritise a mother or father juggling childcare over someone wanting to work flexibly for entirely different reasons - and I think as a result more parents stand a risk of getting turned down as a result.

That is why I resisted proposals put to European Union member states this week that would have meant extending flexible working right across the board. I think that would have been at the cost of parents.

Flexible working – showing the way ahead

Flexible working reforms will continue to be effective because they create the opportunity for employers and workers to work out what suits them.

I am as certain as I can be that this is the type of dialogue we need to see in workplaces across a range of issues.

I think we have got to a place where we have come to the end of the era of major new employment regulation. Our focus now must be on implementation, and promoting dialogue between employers and employees.

In this way we can support high performing workplaces in the future, while maintaining UK competitiveness. And most importantly, ensuring that more and more people are able to work.

Our drive over the last 10 years has been to secure both fair treatment and prosperity for working people, while preserving and enhancing our economic success.

We’ve introduced other important reforms such as extended maternity leave and pay, greater protections for part-time workers and a statutory right to paid leave with a similar light-touch.

And it is right that we advance this approach – as we are trying to do with flexible working. Because the bottom line is that the most important right that a parent wants is the right to work. First and foremost to be able to earn a living.

Because there is no point having a package of fantastic workplace rights if it is impossible or difficult to get a job in the first place.

So the number one priority for our employment policies must be ensuring a strong economy that helps businesses keep creating more and more jobs.

And more mums and dads in need will gain in the future by this consensus approach if it means gaining agreement to their flexible working requests.

So that it does not become a question of either work or family, but we give them the opportunity to balance both. To fulfil their ambitions as parents and workers.

And I think in doing that we shall achieve a fair and productive economy. And a fair and more tolerant society.

Thank you very much.