Flexible working

Flexible working is a potentially important option for workers who are finding their ability to work affected by illness or disability. The Children and Families Act 2014 extended the right to request to work flexibly to all employees, regardless of their caring responsibilities, from 30 June 2014. The earlier statutory procedure to “consider requests for flexible working” has been replaced with a broad duty to “deal with the application in a reasonable manner”.

All employees with 26 weeks’ service can make one request per year to work flexibly. There is no need for the reason for the request to be to care for a child or adult dependent. This right is covered by an Acas Code and Acas Guide. While the scope of this policy has been widened, employers no longer have to follow a set procedure in dealing with requests. Neither do they have to allow the employee to be accompanied to a meeting to discuss flexible working — although if they want to demonstrate that they have acted reasonably that might still be considered good practice. The legal framework for flexible working requires employers to consider requests in a reasonable manner and within a three-month period.

A 2013 report by disability charity Scope, A million futures, suggests that greater flexibility over working time and practices is critical in order to keep disabled people in work. Close to half of unemployed disabled people surveyed said that flexible working would have helped them stay at work, but that they were not given this option, and over a third said that the option to modify their duties would have helped them to keep their job.

www.acas.org.uk/flexibleworking

www.scope.org.uk/Scope/media/Documents/Publication%20Directory/A-million-futures-halving-the-disability-employment-gap.pdf