Gerry Sutcliffe MP

WORKING FAMILIES CONFERENCE

We are committed to raising productivity and delivering prosperity for all but this can only be done by maximising potential in the workplace.

We have come a long way in the last few decades. I can all too easily remember, and not so long ago either, when businesses could refuse to employ someone just because they had children.

At that time even the civil service, which is considered by some to have better working conditions than some private sector counterparts, could ask a women to resign just because they were getting married or when they became pregnant.

As I say we have come a long way, but there can still be in some quarters an expectation that women should stay at home. So there is no room for complacency and there is still much more that can be done to assist working families and to maximise potential at work.

Supporting families by enabling them to balance their work and caring commitments is not just important for the individuals and our future society; it makes good business sense too.

This is because the greater the provision of flexible working, the more choice employers have in recruiting and retaining the best staff.

Last month, we launched a report called ‘Managing Change – Practical Ways to Reduce Long Hours and Reform Working Practices’. This was produced in association with both the TUC and CBI.

The report shows the diverse and creative ways flexible working is used in different organisations. This includes job-sharing, annualised hours and working from home often drawing on a variety of technology to deliver improved services to customers.

The case studies demonstrate that when used effectively, these approaches have and continue to bring very real benefits to individuals but also a real competitive advantage to the organisation as a whole.

Caroline Walters from BT, which was one of the case studies featured in this report, will be sharing her experience of flexible working a little later in this conference, so I will leave it for her to expand on what can be achieved with a little creativity.

Our approach to increasing flexible working opportunities is two-pronged. The key element is about actively promoting the benefits of work-life balance to business.

The second is focused on targeted and light-touch legislation. We believe the majority of businesses recognise the benefits of flexible working and that it benefits the bottom line. But a safety net of legislation is required to protect those employees who do not benefit from working for progressive employers.

The right to request flexible working was introduced in 2003 and has been a tremendous success. It has helped many parents change their working patterns and got businesses to focus on how work can be better organised.

Almost a quarter of employees with children under six have requested to work flexibly in the last two years. And only around 10% of flexible working requests are now being declined – compared to 20% before the law was introduced.

This success is due to the law's targeted rather than blanket approach. This has enabled organisations to grow flexible working at a pace they can manage.

Indeed many organisations are opening up opportunities for flexible working to more of their employees – not just those covered by the law.

Since we introduced this right we have been monitoring and evaluating its impact. We plan to publish a range of evidence next spring which will act as a useful baseline and ensure that any further support is targeted where it is most needed.

The Working Families research that Professor Cary Cooper is presenting today will be another important part of this evidence base.

The DTI is also publishing a report today, which examines flexible and family friendly work practices in small businesses in the service sector. One of the key messages is that the majority of small employers are committed and able to address work-life balance issues.

Perhaps, unsurprisingly, the study found that small employers say flexible working is intrinsically part of their culture. The fact that they are small means they are in tune with their employee’s needs and adjust to these needs when they can. Many small companies have also found that this flexibility can also be popular with their customers.

This finding is consistent with the CBI’s recent survey, which showed that the smallest employers are least likely to refuse a request to work flexibly.

Small firms recognise that offering flexibility enables them to retain their best employees and so brings business benefits. However, the study also suggests that more can be done by small firms to maximise the potential benefits for their businesses, such as using flexible working as part of a recruitment or employee commitment strategy. This is where guidance and we as a Government have an important role to play.

This is why we have produced a range of support for businesses drawing from a wide diversity of sources. In addition to published guidance, Business Link and ACAS provide tailored assistance to help businesses manage their employees requests to work flexibly.

Earlier this year Acas added a free online training module on the right to request to supplement their existing services.
It is important for employers that they are aware of all the guidance and help that is out there. I know that Working Families have an excellent selection of pages on their website specifically to help smaller employers maximise flexible working opportunities and I am pleased to promote this.

So what are the next steps that we are taking to help working families?

As many of you will know, following publication of our Ten Year Strategy for Childcare, we recently consulted on proposals to provide more choice for families in how they balance work and caring responsibilities.

The principles behind these proposals are to: ensure every child has the best possible start in life; respond to changing patterns of employment and ensure that parents and others with caring responsibilities can work and progress their careers; enable all families to have genuine choices about how they balance work and family life.

We consulted extensively on these proposals, drawing on earlier consultations with stakeholders including a Citizens’ Jury and a series of Roundtables. We spoke to businesses both large and small, parent groups, unions, academics and I’m sure many of you here today will have taken the opportunity to help shape these proposals.

What came out clearly was the desire to give children the best start in life or support elderly or sick relatives in the best way possible.

As we developed these proposals we were clear that we wanted to establish a balanced framework of rights and responsibilities for both employers and employees. So whilst providing enhanced choice and entitlements for the individual – we also wanted to minimise burdens on business.

There has been much speculation about what plans we have. I can say that we have been looking carefully at a range of options to try and understand the impact and implications of any measures intorduced. For example –

Can we do something more creative around leave which can facilitate greater sharing of childcare between men and women?

How can we better support those caring for adults?

What would be the impact of extending the scope of the flexible working legislation to parents with older children and carers of adults?

Is there more support and guidance that Government could provide to facilitate the spread of flexible working?

We have already signalled our intention to extend the flexible working law to carers, as we want these people to have more choice to enable them to balance work and their caring roles.

Their needs are especially complex – even when compared to parents – and there is more we should do to understand how Government and society can support them. We will therefore be consulting further on the details of this proposal.

Today we are publishing our formal response to the consultation which will outline all of our proposals in detail. We are also, as I said earlier, publishing the Work and Families Bill which has just been introduced into Parliament.

Legislation has its place as I earlier described, But crucially much of what we want to achieve is cultural. It is about using the legislation as the foundation in conjunction with disseminating good practice to steer organisations on to become high performing workplaces.

We all know families face huge challenges in balancing their home and work responsibilities. The demands of an increasingly competitive economy mean that many families often struggle to balance their caring and working commitments.

The benefits of flexible, family friendly working practices speak for themselves. In a tight labour market good employers understand it makes business sense to provide flexible working opportunities for their staff.

These employers know flexible working arrangements enable them to raise their staff morale and decrease unplanned absenteeism, retain skilled staff and reduce recruitment costs. But, most significantly, it enables them to react to changing market conditions more effectively.

I am grateful to Working Families for the work that has gone into today, and the research that they are launching. This conference provides us all with the opportunity to think about what more we can all do to exploit the benefits of flexible working.