Nick Clegg event on family friendly working - TODAY

I wonder how easy it will be for grandparents to access flexible working. Or gain 'credit' for facilitating their younger relatives wish or need to work.

DH has always run his own small business but could not, for 'business reasons' contemplate flexible hours for his staff - it is ridiculous to put the extra burden of having to 'consider' allowing someone to work flexibly when it is patently impossible.

On childcare, it's interesting to compare our system with countries such as Germany, where parents now have the right to day care for children aged over 12 months, and can sue if none is available. It is much cheaper than childcare in Britain, with state-run nursery care for 3 days a week available for as little as 50 euros a month.

The main motivation for this is that the German government is worried about the very low birth rate, so is currently trying to make parenthood more attractive. What I find interesting is that those parents who do not put their child into state daycare between the ages of one to three can now claim 150 euros a month from the state, the idea being that parents have a fair choice of how to look after their children.

I wonder if Mr Clegg could ever see this happening in the UK, or is the Government's motivation just to get parents out to work, even if some of them feel that their most worthwhile job ever would be raising their own children?

Employers have an obligation to consider requests, so when this first comes into force they will, presumably, be deluged with paperwork.

They have to consider within three months of application, and in the order that requests are made, so their first three months could be pretty hectic, and it would not be surprising if a lot of those first requests are turned down after a rather short consideration.

There is a list of specific reasons why they can turn down requests. Employers who are on the ball could circulate this list to employees, along with an explanation of the rights of both them and the employees, so that no time is wasted on applications which are bound to be unworkable. As ever, some firms will communicate well with their workforce and some will not.

Having the right to ask for something doesn't actually make it any more attainable. Presumably I have the right to ask my employer to double my pay, but I can't see it getting me anywhere. For small businesses, and organisations such as schools and hospitals where flexible working may cause particular problems, having to deal with frequent requests from employees and having to ensure that all are dealt with fairly and using the same criteria could be a time-consuming obligation they can well do without. On the other hand, I am sympathetic to the needs of families, and larger employers may be able to accommodate more flexible working. Perhaps incentives of some sort to businesses to offer more job-shares or part-time posts might help? Though in these days of austerity, what incentives would be affordable?

A single person has to do 30 hrs of work to qualify for tax credits, shouldn't Grandparents who are supplying care for grandchildren qualify for tax/pension credits? there is still a long way to go to address these issues!

As a Grandparent who is still of working age but can no longer work as I care for my Grandchildren while Daughter works, I feel I represent a large group of Grandparents who enable our children to work and so benefiting the Country... could we possibly have some help from the Government in ie a NIC paid stamp as our pension will suffer from not having fully paid up all our contributions.

Hi. I heard your representative on the phone in today on Radio Scotland.
She described grans as the "Sandwich" generation who look after an elderly parent as well as their children's children ie grandchildren.

But....I would like to speak up for those of us who are the "parents" of school age children who are also a sandwich generation, having some of our parents around and some who have died but the parents in our family are actually needing help as health not great and they have never done any "childcare" for us as they didnt want to and we didnt want that as we wanted to bring up our own children. But we are now at the stage with older children when we want to get back to work.
But we are definitely a sandwich generation and very much envy those with active fit parents who can actually help them and help them to work as it makes those families have so many advantages yet its those famillies who are most vocal about wanting subsidies !!!

It has to be emphasised that not every family is the same ! And those families where we maybe went to University and worked and often away from home and maybe also have children later now also have older parents themselves and are really struggling..... and as we have had to maybe move to be nearer a husband's job and they may be away from home a lot and it just gets harder for the wife to do the family side of things as have no help but its also harder to find time or find a job with the flexible hours.

Fully agree though that everyone should have right to flexible working but I have yet to see a job advert which asks you what hours you want to work ! Its hard enough spotting anything that is not just full time !!

I think that being able to request flexible working is a good thing as long as the employer has a right to say no or come to a compromise. Otherwise many smaller companies, who already struggle with giving employees maternity leave etc., will suffer.
My personal view is that a mother should not work but should care for her own children. Yes, I know that I was born too late for this to be a reality for most but I feel all this legislation has become so complicated and biased in favour of those who "play the system" in order to get as much out for very little put in.