As from 6th April 2003, subject to regulations, parents and others (such as guardians) who are responsible for looking after children aged under 6 (or under 18 if the child is disabled) have the legal right to ensure that requests they make for flexible working arrangements (such as part-time work or working from home - WFH) are taken seriously by their employers. The request must be to enable the employee to care for the child and an important condition is that the employee must have been employed in his job for at least 6 months to be eligible.

With effect from 6th April 2007 the right to request flexible working is extended to employees with responsibility for caring for (i) spouses/ partners (ii) adult relatives as defined and (iii) adults living at the same address as the employee (see the Flexible Working (Eligibility, Complaints and Remedies) (Amendment) Regulations 2006, SI 2006/3314 and notes at Acts of Parliament etc/Work and Families Act 2006 ). The government has issued revised a DTI Guide - Flexible Working "The right to request and the duty to consider", December 2006, which take account of these changes. There is also an ACAS Advisory booklet on Flexible Working, 2007 which covers the 2007 changes.

In May 2008 the government indicated that the right to request flexible working is to be extended to all those with parental responsibility for children aged 16 and under. This is due to be implemented in April 2009 (see immediately below and notes at Bills before Parliament/Equal Pay and Flexible Working Bill ).

The proposal follows the Imelda Walsh "Review to extend flexible working", May 2008 and a failed private member's Bill introduced in the House of Commons at end March 2007 which, if enacted, would have extended the right to request flexible working to all parents with children under the age of 18 (see notes at Bills before Parliament/Flexible Working Bill ). In early November 2008 there were suggestions that the start-date for this extension might be postponed from April 2009 (see for example Daily Telegraph 10th November 2008 "Harriet Harman insists flexible working will be extended despite Lord Mandelson's claims"). However Pat McFadden, Minister for Employment Relations, confirmed in December 2008, after the Queen's Speech, 3rd December 2008 on the opening of the new Parliament, that the extension will indeed take effect from April 2009 as originally planned - a statement from him says ".......... our plan was to introduce this extended right in April 2009 and I can now confirm that we will do so".

go to updated reference in this note.

At one time it was suggested that the right would simply be a right to request flexible working time arrangements. The final legislation however also provides for requests to work from home instead of from the employer's place of business and gives the DTI power to make regulations extending the categories of terms and conditions of employment to which changes may be requested.

There are various grounds on which an employer can lawfully refuse such a request. Otherwise the employee will have the right to apply to an employment tribunal for compensation and/or an order that the employer reconsider his refusal to allow flexitime.

There is nothing in the "flexible work" provisions noted above to alter existing sex discrimination law under which in recent years it has frequently been possible for employees, especially for women returning to work after maternity leave, to negotiate flexible working arrangements with their employers (see notes at Maternity/maternity leave/return to work (part-time) . This is a complicated and sensitive area where expert advice is likely to be essential in any particular case.

If a dispute arises over a request for flexible working and cannot be settled amicably a tribunal can be avoided by making use of a special ACAS arbitration scheme, subject to agreement of both parties (see notes at Flexible Working/ACAS arbitration scheme ).

For a checklist on the new rules see Flexible Working/checklist and for "historical" background notes see Flexible Working/background .

See also notes at Maternity/maternity leave/return to work (part-time) and at Family friendly proposals generally