Working Families is the UK’s national charity for working parents and carers. Our mission is to remove the barriers that people with caring responsibilities face in the workplace through free legal advice, tools for employers and our advocacy efforts.
Categories
Beneficiaries
Situation
The statistics show that three in four mothers and nine out of ten fathers in the UK are employed. Only 3 in 10 mothers and 2 in 10 fathers have an agreed special working arrangement, with parents who are on a lower income twice as likely to have an informal flexible working request rejected than the average parent. Four in ten working parents on lower incomes have gone into debt to pay for childcare, and over half have reduced their working hours to manage childcare needs.
Solution
We provide free legal advice to parents and carers on their rights at work. Our Impact Report 2023 found that nearly 1 million working parents and carers accessed our legal advice pages and we provided advice to nearly 1,700 via phone and e-mail. We also advocate for changes to employment rights, and changes to the Employment Bill (Flexible Working) were made as a direct result of our direct advocacy efforts with Yasmin Qureshi, MP. We also work with over 140 employers to embed flexible working.