Working flexibly means parents should find it easier to manage their work-life balance, yet a new survey has found that only a quarter of parents work from home or juggle their hours to make family life easier.

Just over a year ago, the law was changed to give all employees who've worked for the same company for 26 weeks the right to request for more flexible working arrangements. Yet a study by the budgeting account website thinkmoney has found that just 13% of parents take advantage of flexi hours, either starting later or leaving earlier, and only 14% work from home.

Julie McCarthy, head of policy at the Working Families charity, says there hasn't been a huge spike in applications to work flexibly since the right to request was introduced - although the charity's own research has found that 61% of parents have access to flexible working, sometimes on an informal basis.

Flexible working is usually better for families - the charity's research has found a third of parents want their children to spend less time in childcare and more time with them, and employers often say flexible working makes staff happier, which is something that will be highlighted during Working Families' National Work Life Week (September 21-25).

If seeking a formal flexible working arrangement, workers need to apply to their company in writing, and should get a decision within three months. Requests to work flexibly can only be refused if there are business reasons for doing so.

"Good employers say flexible working can really engage and empower their employees," says McCarthy.

"And staff want that flexibility - they don't want their lives to be all about work, they want to do other things. It's not just mums looking after their kids any more, it's about everybody."

Although many workers may not have formal flexible working arrangements, some will be able to flex their hours if necessary, says McCarthy, who points out that men are often the ones who take advantage of this opportunity.

The most common way of doing this is flexible time arrangements such as compressed hours, working in term time and so on, plus working from home or other remote office locations.

In the Working Families Modern Families 2015 report, many of the respondents who didn't have access to flexible working said their role didn't accommodate it - so, for example, they might have been teachers or carers.

McCarthy points out that some people simply don't want to work flexibly, and say it would reduce their income, or believe they'd be seen as less committed and it would negatively impact their career.

Certainly, the thinkmoney study found that more than half of parents commit to normal hours so they can be seen to be part of the team, and 15% feel pressured to work longer hours than they'd like to.

In addition, 14% of parents often receive disapproving looks or banter from colleagues when they leave work on time to pick up children, and a quarter felt colleagues without children were less sympathetic to their childcare needs.

Some parents even complained that their employers were equally unsympathetic - 8% said they received disapproving looks from their boss when leaving work on time, and the same number felt their boss favoured colleagues without children.

Increasing numbers of men are working flexibly, says McCarthy, and she suggests this could help strengthen the belief that flexible working can be for everybody.

"Staff who work flexibly tend to be happier because they're not having to juggle childcare, or whatever it is they have to do, with their work," she says.

"If they can manage everything better by working flexibly, it means they're more engaged in the workplace and happier at home.

"Flexible working has to be good for family life when it's well managed, and the more we can encourage an equal share of family responsibilities in the home alongside flexible working, the better it can work."

:: For advice on employment rights, contact the Working Families legal helpline on 0300 012 0312, or visit www.workingfamilies.org.uk

ASK THE EXPERT

Q: "My 13-year-old daughter wants to dye her hair, but I've told her she can't as I think she's too young to use hair dye and I'm worried she might have an allergic reaction to it. She thinks I'm over-reacting - am I?"

A: Consultant dermatologist Dr David Orton, of the British Association of Dermatologists, says: "Allergies can have an enormous impact on people's lives and as such it's important to be aware of this potential hazard.

"The chemicals used in permanent oxidative hair dyes are well recognised as sensitisers having the capacity to cause allergic reactions. The younger someone starts to regularly use such products, the more will be their lifetime risk of developing contact allergy to its chemical constituents.

"Manufacturers of these cosmetics are well aware of their potential to cause severe allergic reactions, which is why they voluntarily print such warnings on the packaging.

"A recent study has shown that over the last 10 years there has been an increase in child allergies to p-Phenylenediamine (PPD), an ingredient in hair dyes, probably linked to more young people using them. The numbers with a contact allergy to PPD in one patch testing clinic went from 8% of the children they tested to 16%.

"Another important related risk is the trend for young people to have black henna tattoos. Black henna (as opposed to plain henna) often has extremely high and unregulated concentration of PPD added to the henna, and having such a tattoo can greatly increase your risk of becoming allergic to PPD and therefore subsequently reacting to oxidative hair dyes.

"Finally, it's worth knowing that an allergy to hair dye chemicals can sometimes put people at risk of developing cross-reactions to other chemicals unrelated to hair dyes such as topical local anaesthetics."

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