The KCN said last week that employers were more likely to offer their employees stress counselling than help them with their basic childcare needs. KCN chief executive Anne Longfield called for 'individual work-life contracts' so employees' working hours are arranged to 'match lifestyle and access to childcare'.
The KCN's call coincided with the publication by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation of two reports to mark last week's Work-Life Balance Week, which pressed for employers to adopt flexible working hours and to make their staff aware of them. The first report, Employed Carers and Family-Friendly Employment Policies, by researchers from Sheffield's Hallam and City universities, found that half the employees at six large workplaces offering family-friendly work options - such as compassionate leave, carer's leave, flexitime, shift-swapping and a voluntary reduction in hours - were unaware of them.
The study of managers and staff in local government, retail banking and supermarkets, carried out in Sheffield and Canterbury, also found that one in three employees cared for children, only a minority used formal childcare services, and many relied on other family members, particularly in Sheffield. Despite their commitment to family-friendly policies, employers 'had not established strong links with local service providers', the report said.
One such organisation is Children Mean Business, which has spearheaded the development of childcare businesses and family-friendly policies among employers in Sheffield, with the help of European funding. It works as a partnership between the local authority young children's service, Sheffield Children's Information Service, the city's out-of-school network, the Pre-School Learning Alliance, and the South Yorkshire Learning and Skills Council.
Last week at a joint seminar with the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships at Edinburgh University, Mary MacLeod, chief executive of the National Family and Parenting Institute, welcomed the introduction of new parental leave arrangements and the right to ask for flexible working in the Employment Act 2002. But Happy Families? Atypical Work and its Influence on Family Life, the second report published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, warned that some families on low incomes feel they cannot afford to exercise their new rights to ask for options.
Ivana La Valle, co-author of the report by the National Centre for Social Research, said the need for these families to boost their take-home pay through overtime and working 'atypical hours' was a barrier to a better balance between work and life, and raised serious doubts about the effectiveness of the EU Working Time Directive. The report also found that in a majority of dual-income families one or both parents are working hours outside the standard nine-to-five, while more than half (54 per cent) of lone mothers work 'atypical' hours.