Nursery World - Striking a balance

Nursery managers are looking at ways of introducing flexible working hours so that they can meet new Employment Act rules, and, says Mary Evans, flexibility seems to bring all-round benefits From April around 3.7 million parents of young or disabled children will be able to ask their employers to allow them to work flexible hours so they can better manage work and childcare responsibilities.

From April around 3.7 million parents of young or disabled children will be able to ask their employers to allow them to work flexible hours so they can better manage work and childcare responsibilities.

The Government introduced the new family-friendly rules in the Employment Act 2002 as part of its campaign to promote work-life balance. Around two million fathers and 1.5 million mothers with children aged under six, and 200,000 parents with disabled children up to the age of 18, will have a right to request flexible working hours (see box). At the same time the Act will introduce paternity leave for fathers and adoptive fathers and improvements to statutory maternity leave and pay (see box).

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