Parents

What makes an employee hide a pregnancy from their employer?

Everyone should be able to show up in life as their true authentic self both in their personal and professional life.

A four-day working week is great for some, but not for all

Iceland, Belgium, and now the UK. Four-day working week trials are becoming increasingly popular as we start to challenge the rigid five-day working week that we have embraced for decades. These...

New mothers' rights in the workplace – everything you need to know

On Mother’s Day it is important to not only celebrate all the hard work and care that mothers do, but also to draw attention to the many hurdles they still face in today’s society, and how they can be...

Single-mother pensions dropping rapidly post pandemic

The average value of a pension fund for a single mother in the UK has dropped by 40% since the start of the pandemic.

Working BME and disabled parents paying higher childcare costs

Black and minority ethnic (BME) and disabled parents are spending a higher proportion of their income on childcare than white or non-disabled workers, making them more susceptible to the affects of...

How can employers champion single mothers?

There are 1.8 million single parents in the UK, the vast majority of whom (nine out of 10) are women. Almost all are in work or want to work, and pre-pandemic single-parent employment hit record...

Parents struggling with childcare costs

One in eight (13%) British workers has had to opt for part-time hours to manage the cost of childcare.

The problems with Shared Parental Leave

Lockdown 2020 and my wife and I were delighted to find out we were expecting our first child. 

Companies called to report flexible and hybrid working policies

Non-for-profit organisation the Work Foundation at Lancaster University has called on government to introduce mandatory flexible and hybrid working reporting.

Employers can reduce poverty by offering flexible work

Flexible work for parents can be a key factor in lifting children out of poverty, a report on poverty in Scotland by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) has found.

A working parent’s lessons learned from COVID-19

At the onset of the pandemic, working parents were forced to completely readjust. Almost overnight, what had been considered 'home' evolved to encompass both 'office' and 'classroom'. 

Hybrid working not a panacea for inclusivity

A report out this week suggests that the adoption of hybrid working models would allow nearly 4 million people otherwise unable to work to join the UK workforce.