Flexible working, done fairly
Flexible working law, family rights and hybrid evidence.
- Level
- Bitesize
- Learning time
- 2 hours
- Where
- Managing well
- Price
- £39
When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Read the full terms
Certificate of Completion
Overview and Outcomes.
Overview
Flexibility works best when it is designed on purpose and decided fairly. The course starts with statutory family and caring leave, protection in pregnancy and maternity, and the right to request flexible working under the Acas Code and the Employment Rights Act 2025, with the illustrative case of Carys showing a request handled well. Next comes the evidence on hybrid and remote work, from return-to-office mandates to proximity bias and Nick Bloom's Trip.com trial. Finally it sets out the eight statutory business reasons for refusal, how inflexibility can become indirect discrimination, the right to disconnect and Wales's remote working ambition.
What you'll develop
In this Bitesize, you will develop the ability to:
- Identify the main statutory family and caring leave rights and explain the protections that apply during pregnancy and maternity.
- Assess evidence on hybrid and remote work, distinguishing randomised trials and hard data from opinion and survey findings.
- Set out the current right to request flexible working, how it has developed, and the eight statutory business reasons an employer may give for refusal.
- Plan and handle a flexible working request in line with the Acas Code, including consultation, the eight business reasons, trials and appeals.
- Plan a hybrid arrangement for your team that starts from the work, uses a team working agreement and anchor days, and builds in parity and fairness for frontline roles.
- Recognise when an inflexible rule may amount to indirect discrimination, and check your team's decisions for patterns affecting carers, disabled staff and older workers.
- Assess flexible working and family-related decisions for equality risk, including for carers, disabled staff, older workers and those going through the menopause.
- Apply the lessons of the Trip.com trial to test working arrangements as experiments and measure outcomes rather than presence.
The Modules.
2 hours of learning.
- 06Family Rights, Flexible Working and LeaveThere are moments when work must make room for family life, and people remember how they were treated. This module maps statutory family and caring leave, explains strong protection in pregnancy and maternity, traces the right to request flexible working through the Acas Code and the Employment Rights Act 2025, and uses the illustrative case of Carys to show a request handled well, before turning to menopause, equality action plans and the duty to prevent sexual harassment.38 min
- 12Hybrid and Remote Work: What the Evidence SaysFew management subjects produce stronger opinions on thinner evidence than hybrid and remote work. This module separates what we know from what is contested, from return-to-office mandates and survey data to proximity bias and hybrid's failure mode, and sets out five steps for designing hybrid on purpose. It closes with the Trip.com randomised trial by Nick Bloom and colleagues, and what it means for public services.40 min
- 13Flexible Working: Law, Policy and PracticeFlexible working decisions are made every week and shape recruitment, retention, wellbeing and fairness. This module traces the right to request from 2003 to the day-one right of April 2024 and the Employment Rights Act 2025, sets out the eight statutory business reasons for refusal, and explains how inflexibility can amount to indirect discrimination. It also covers rota-based teams, the right to disconnect and Wales's remote working ambition.40 min