The right to request flexible working is currently linked to carer responsibilities, including parents of young children, disabled children and adults in need of care. Many employers will be familiar with the current statutory procedure for handling flexible working requests.

The principle of flexible working requests is simply the right for employees to request changes to their working hours, working times or location and, if granted, such changes become permanent changes to their terms and conditions of employment. This is often associated with requests to work part-time following return to work after maternity leave, but is certainly not limited to that scenario.