Your right to ask for flexible work
As a working mum, flexible work gives you the freedom to continue your career and earn money, while spending time with your child. The arrangement allows you to fit your career into your new life in a way that suits both you and your employer.
Find out what types of flexible working you can apply for, and whether you qualify for the legal right to ask for it.
What counts as flexible work?
There are lots of different ways you can choose to work flexibly, including:
- Job sharing, where two people do one job and split the hours.
- Working from home some or all of the time.
- Working part time by doing fewer hours or days.
- Compressed hours where you work full time hours over less days.
- Flexitime in which you always work core hours, but choose when you start and finish work.
- Annualised hours which means you work an agreed number of hours over a year but have some flexibility in when you work them.
- Staggered hours with a different start and finish time to your colleagues.
Do you qualify for flexible work?
To qualify for the legal right to ask for flexible work you must:
- Have been continuously working for your employer for at least 26 weeks.
- Be a parent responsible for looking after a child under 17.
- Care for an adult relative, partner or someone living at the same address.
- If you have a disabled child, you can apply for flexible working until they turn 18.
