Andrew Blench, SBM consultant with School Business Partner Limited, explores flexible working including the benefits, recent changes to legislation and impact on the SBM role
Read the full article below or on page 12 in our May magazine
A good place to start this article is probably by answering the question, ‘What is flexible working?’ ACAS defines flexible working as:
…any type of working arrangement that gives some degree of flexibility on how long, where and when an employee works. The following flexible working options are considered to be the typical arrangements that employees will request, but the organisation recognises that there may be alternatives, or a combination of options, which are suitable to both the organisation and the employee:
annualised hours;
compressed hours;
flexitime;
homeworking;
job-sharing;
overtime;
part-time working;
term-time working.
There are many potential benefits that flexible working can bring from both the employer and the employee’s viewpoint. For the school or trust as an employer the following could be seen as benefits:
Savings on office space through flexible and remote working.
The ability to flex staff resource to meet peaks in demand.
Improved employee job satisfaction and wellbeing.
Reduced sickness absence rates.
Improved staff retention.
Helping with recruitment.
For the employee, flexible working benefits include:
Allowing employees to balance changing demands in their personal lives.
Creating space and time to pursue interests, study or other employment.
Managing transition into retirement.
The DfE has seen the benefits of encouraging flexible working as a response to teacher workload and retention challenges. Flexible working can be an important tool in retaining teachers and other staff who are nearing the end of their careers – creating the option to gradually reduce or change working arrangements in the years running up to stopping work all together.
Things to think about as an SBM
The right to request flexible working is a statutory right and, therefore, an employer can’t take the stance ‘Oh we don’t do that around here’. It applies to all staff and not just those with children or caring responsibilities.
An employee has the right to make a formal application (called a ‘statutory application’) for flexible working once they have been employed for 26 consecutive weeks; they can only have one application considered in any 12-month period. Employers have a duty to consider applications in a reasonable manner. Note that there isn’t a right to be granted flexible working, but there is a legal requirement that applications are given proper and reasonable consideration.
Employers can refuse applications for flexible working but have to give the reasons for doing so after having considered the pros and cons of granting the request. Some of the legitimate reasons for refusal of a flexible working request include:
There will be extra costs incurred that will damage the business.
The work cannot be reorganised among other staff.
People cannot be recruited to do the work.
Flexible working will affect quality and performance.
The business will not be able to meet customer demand.
There’s a lack of work to do during the proposed working times.
The business is planning changes to the workforce.
Where employers can’t immediately grant the request in the way that the employee has asked for, there is an expectation that the employer will meet with the employee and explore other alternative options for flexible working and, when a request is refused, there is a right of appeal for the employee.
All of this needs to be managed formally with an application form, and supporting letters and processes which should comply with ACAS guidance – see the Acas Code of Practice on handling flexible working requests | Acas; it’s important to have a process which is fair, equitable and transparent.
It’s worth noting that employees who are not happy with the way their application has been handled can apply to an employment tribunal for redress. Employers also need to be mindful of the protected characteristics in the Equalities Act and to not discriminate against anyone applying for flexible working. This is particularly important when considering applications for part-time working, which can come from female employees with caring responsibilities.
Where is your flexible working policy?
Most SBMs will be familiar with the list of statutory policies published on gov.uk that schools must have in place (see Statutory policies for schools and academy trusts – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)); unfortunately, this list is not all-encompassing and, therefore, does not include the requirement to have a flexible working policy.
As the right to request flexible working is a statutory requirement my advice would be to make sure that you have a policy which is reviewed regularly – this can be part of another policy; your leave of absence policy might be an example. Both The School Bus and ACAS websites offer sample flexible working policies which can be adapted to your trust or school. (Flexible working policy template | AcasFlexible Working Policy- TheSchoolBus) Additionally, your local authority or academy trust central office may have a policy which applies to all of their schools. The gov.uk website also contains a basic flexible working application form – request flexible working: application form template – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Do you have a clear process, and who is responsible for this?
It is possible to grant flexible working outside of a formal request and process; this may happen in instances when this is not a contentious decision. Having said this, my advice would be to always follow a formal process as, over time, memories can fade and people move on; challenges to decisions made can occur some time in the future, so it’s useful to have everything properly documented.
I have seen policies which state that employees need to submit an application in writing, but the policy doesn’t suggest a format in which that written application should be made, so I would encourage you to have an application template – key things to include are:
the actual change or changes that the employee wants you to consider;
the start date;
how they think that any impacts on workload colleagues and pupils can be managed.
On this last point it’s worth bearing in mind that this is a two-way conversation – the onus shouldn’t be solely upon the applicant to make this work. The danger is that if the employer doesn’t properly explore with employees how things can be made to work, the employee may have a case to take to appeal, or a potential case of discrimination.
Think about who will receive and consider any applications; in most settings this will be the headteacher but, in others, the application may go straight to governors. If governors consider all applications then care must be taken to exclude some governors from the process in case they are needed at a later stage to hear an appeal.
Changes to flexible working legislation
A private members bill was submitted to parliament in the autumn term of 2022. The government indicated at that time that it would support its passage through the house of parliament but it appears that its progress may have stalled. If this does find its way onto the statute books it will give employees to right to request flexible working from day one of their employment and will also allow two applications for flexible working in a 12-month period – so watch this space!
Recruitment
Whilst the right to request flexible working only applies currently to those who have been in employment for 26 weeks, schools should consider each vacancy on its own merits and be open to different ways of filling it, or meeting the need the vacancy is addressing. Flexible working is about having a flexible mindset as well. It challenges the mantra of ‘Well, we’ve always done things this way, and it worked fine, so why change?’
Emerging from the pandemic many schools have experienced difficulties in recruiting; we are also aware of a changing mindset in society in general to the world of work. There is a sense that people are less willing to let work dominate their lives and a reprioritisation of what really matters.
Some small concessions on our part to the changing labour market will pay big dividends in the longer term.
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