Researchers found that work-life issues posed serious dilemmas for business households operating on the margins of poverty, and that self-employed households of this type needed more income and an income that was less insecure.
Source: Susan Baines and Jane Wheelock with Ulrike Gelder, Riding the Roller Coaster: Family life and self-employment, Policy Press for Joseph Rowntree Foundation, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: Summary | JRF Findings D43
Date: 2003-Dec
Researchers said that flexible working required greater promotion amongst male workers, and that more should be done to establish that flexible working did not necessarily mean poor career prospects. This meant making flexible working available at all levels of occupations, and challenging the notion that working long hours led to advancement. If this did not happen, there was a risk that flexible working would further segregate men and women in the workforce.
Source: Diane Houston and Julie Waumsley, Attitudes to Flexible Working and Family Life, Policy Press for Joseph Rowntree Foundation, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: Summary | JRF Findings D53
Date: 2003-Dec
A survey found that, while both men and women were concerned about the impact of children on their lifestyle, women continued to bear the brunt of a mother tax on lifestyle, career and income; people leaving parenthood until later in life were more likely to plan children, but were no more likely to be in control of when and if they had them; and while would-be parents in their 30s were likely to be more financially stable, in fact they appeared to be more concerned about the potential impact of a child on their lifestyle than their 20-something peers. (The report was based on focus groups and a survey of 1,500 adults aged between 20-40.)
Source: Kate Stanley, Laura Edwards and Becky Hatch, The Family Report 2003: Choosing Happiness?, Institute for Public Policy Research (020 7470 6100) for Lever Faberg Limited
Links: Report (pdf) | IPPR press release | Observer report
Date: 2003-Nov
A report examined the practical difficulties managers faced in applying family-friendly employment policies, and what affected their attitudes towards such policies. Many line managers were tackling work-life issues without adequate training in how to respond to their employees' needs and requests for flexible working arrangements. Government policy guidance and new legislative developments should take account of the different organisational settings, and the different labour markets, in which family-friendly employment was implemented.
Source: Sue Yeandle, Judith Phillips, Fiona Scheibl, Andrea Wigfield and Sarah Wise, Line Managers and Family-friendly Employment: Roles and perspectives, Policy Press for Joseph Rowntree Foundation, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: JRF Findings N43
Date: 2003-Nov
A survey found that there was strong support for work-life balance among employers, and that provision had increased in recent years. The authors said that the results also supported the business case for the provision of work-life balance practices.
Source: Stephen Woodland, Nadine Simmonds, Marie Thornby, Rory Fitzgerald and Alice McGee, The Second Work-Life Balance Study: Results from the employers' survey, Employment Relations Research Series 22, Department of Trade and Industry (020 7215 5177)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary (pdf)
Date: 2003-Nov
Two leading charities campaigning for work-life balance - Parents At Work and New Ways to Work - merged to form 'Working Families'.
Source: Press release 10 November 2003, Working Families (020 7253 7243)
Links: Press release (Word file)
Date: 2003-Nov
A report examined work-life balance issues in family-run minority ethnic businesses. It compared the relationship between family and work over time, at start-up and with business development, and at successive stages of the family life cycle. It also compared differences in family involvement and attitudes to work and family life across different minority ethnic groups, between small and large businesses, and traditional and knowledge-intensive sectors. Flexible working arrangements were found to have enabled entrepreneurs' wives to work in the family business and simultaneously fulfil their domestic responsibilities.
Source: Anuradha Basu and Eser Altinay, Family and Work in Minority Ethnic Businesses, Policy Press for Joseph Rowntree Foundation, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: Summary | JRF Findings N13
Date: 2003-Nov
A study of the banking, supermarket and local government sectors assessed the relationship between family-friendly employment policies and career development. Both male and female employees in the three sectors supported the introduction of family-friendly policies in their organisations. However, in all sectors managers found it more difficult to take advantage of the flexibility on offer, and individual career development often had negative consequences for family life.
Source: Rosemary Crompton, Jane Dennett and Andrea Wigfield, Organisations, Careers and Caring, Policy Press for Joseph Rowntree Foundation, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: JRF Findings N33
Date: 2003-Nov
A survey of more than 500 organisations found that flexible working regulations introduced in April 2003 had in general been implemented smoothly, in both the private and public sectors. Almost 2 in 3 employers who had received statutory requests from workers for flexible arrangements had agreed to at least half of them, either in the form submitted or in modified form; 9 out of 10 employers said they had had no significant problems complying with the new right to ask, with cost an issue for just 13 per cent; and 60 per cent of employers said that the current package of family friendly rights had not tipped the balance too far in favour of working parents.
Source: A Parent s Right to Ask: Review of flexible working arrangements, Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (020 8971 9000) and Lovells
Links: Report (pdf) | CIPD press release
Date: 2003-Oct
A report said that employers had accepted that work-life balance policies were here to stay and did provide business benefits: yet the work-life balance message still encountered pockets of resistance from managers in a minority of employers.
Source: Work-life Balance, Managing Best Practice Report 109, Work Foundation (0870 165 6700)
Links: Contents list | Work Foundation press release
Date: 2003-Sep
A report reviewed the main findings from a research programme on families and work in the twenty-first century. It said that stereotyped views of mothers having 'family', and fathers having 'work', as their central interest did not fit the facts. The main message from mothers and fathers in 'typical' households was that family came first. Mothers wanted fathers to work shorter hours; and parents of both sexes - and their children - disliked weekend working, especially on Sundays. The government's target of tackling poverty through work could also send a signal that only paid work was important - reinforcing the low value placed on unpaid work and care. The overlapping implication - that paid childcare was better than parental care - ran contrary to the instincts of many parents.
Source: Shirley Dex, Families and Work in the Twenty-first Century, Joseph Rowntree Foundation (01904 629241)
Links: Report (pdf) | JRF Foundations 923 | JRF press release
Date: 2003-Sep
A report said that the government should adopt a broad economic case rather than the existing narrow business case when considering work-life and family-friendly policy. Broader definitions of family , carers and caring responsibilities should be considered when designing family-friendly policies: in particular, policies should recognise that caring for children often involved three generations, including grandparents. Employment benefits should be protected during maternity, paternity, adoption and parental leave, whether paid or unpaid; tax credit entitlement should not be disrupted and pension entitlements should not suffer; and consideration should be given to ways of providing an earnings-related top-up to maternity and paternity pay.
Source: Response to the HM Treasury and Department of Trade and Industry Paper Balancing Work and Family Life: Enhancing choice and support for parents , Women's Budget Group (020 7253 2598)
Links: WBG response (pdf) | Government report (pdf)
Date: 2003-Sep
Researchers found clear evidence of the synchronisation of working hours by spouses. They also reported estimates indicating that propensities to engage in 'associative activity', such as leisure pursuits, depended not only on a spouse's activity, but also on the availability of suitable companions outside the household.
Source: Stephen Jenkins and Lars Osberg, Nobody to Play With? The implications of leisure co-ordination, Working Paper 2003-19 , Institute for Social and Economic Research/University of Essex (01206 873087)
Links: Working paper (pdf)
Date: 2003-Aug
A study explored how mothers and their partners saw the impact of the woman s employment on their family relationships. It was found that flexible hours and other family friendly employment policies were of limited help to working mothers if their work encroached too much into their home life, and if they felt overloaded and under stress while at work.
Source: Tracey Reynolds, Claire Callender and Rosalind Edwards, Caring and Counting: Impact of mothers employment on family relationships, Policy Press for Joseph Rowntree Foundation, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: JRF Findings 773 | JRF press release
Date: 2003-Jul
A think-tank paper challenged the 'prevailing fallacy' that men and women were interchangeable in their aspirations for work and family life. It said that the government's policies towards 'work-life balance' did not reflect the real needs of modern women and their families, and were based instead on a set of false assumptions.
Source: Jill Kirby, Choosing to be Different: Women, work and the family, Centre for Policy Studies (020 7222 4488)
Links: Paper (pdf) | CPS press release
Date: 2003-Jun
Business leaders accused protagonists of a better work-life balance of often distorting the truth about the workplace, and of 'demonising' it in order to push through an agenda for changing work practices.
Source: Ruth Lea, Work-Life Balance Revisited, Institute of Directors (020 7766 8866)
Links: Report (pdf) | IOD press release
Date: 2003-May
Researchers reportedly found that children of working mothers were as happy, stimulated and emotionally stable as those of parents who stayed at home.
Source: Research by Dieter Wolke and others (Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children project at the University of Bristol), reported in The Independent 14.5.03 and The Guardian 12.4.03
Links: Independent report | Guardian report | ALSPAC press release
Date: 2003-May
A study concluded that trends in family structures and ways of working had created a more complex and diverse context for employer-initiated relocations.
Source: Anne Green and Angela Canny, Geographical Mobility: Family impacts, Policy Press for Joseph Rowntree Foundation, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: JRF Findings 533
Date: 2003-May
A government survey found that most employers supported policies to help parents work flexibly and balance their careers with childcare. The survey, covering 1,200 workplaces and 2,000 employees, found that many employers had already introduced work-life balance arrangements; and that flexible working delivered real improvements to businesses while being cost effective. The government also launched a booklet describing fifty companies which had derived direct business benefits as a result of adopting better work-life practices.
Source: The Second Work-Life Balance Study: Employer and Employee Survey - Summaries of emerging findings, Department of Trade and Industry (0870 150 2500) | Flexible Working: The Business Case, Department of Trade and Industry
Links: Employee survey (pdf) | Employer survey (pdf) | Flexible Working (pdf) | DTI press release
Date: 2003-Apr
Research found that homeworkers in professional occupations tended to find the experience more rewarding than those in traditional occupations (such as packing and assembly work). But all homeworkers with young children found it difficult to balance home and work responsibilities, particularly when they could not afford childcare.
Source: Jeanne Moore, Quality of Home Experience for Homeworkers, Economic and Social Research Council (01793 413000)
Links: ESRC press release
Date: 2003-Apr
New and improved statutory rights to maternity and paternity leave came into force on 6 April 2003. Most new mothers gained the right to take 26 weeks paid leave with a further 26 weeks unpaid if they wanted; fathers gained the right to two weeks paid paternity leave; adoption leave and pay rights were introduced broadly mirroring the rights available to biological parents; and a right was introduced for parents with children under six, or disabled children under 18, to apply to work flexibly, with a corresponding duty on employers to consider these requests according to a set procedure.
Source: House of Commons Hansard, Written Ministerial Statement 7.4.03, columns 3-4 WS, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Hansard | Guardian report | DTI explanatory note
Date: 2003-Apr
Researchers found that over half of young women see the ideal family situation as one where mothers either work part-time or not at all. Despite being better educated and enjoying wider career opportunities than previous generations, they also continue to take responsibility for most housework and childcare.
Source: Steve Fenton, Harriet Bradley and Jackie West, Winners and Losers in Labour Markets: Young adults' employment trajectories, Economic and Social Research Council (01793 413000)
Links: ESRC press release
Date: 2003-Mar
The government began consultation on expanding tax and national insurance exemptions for employer-supported childcare. It proposed to widen the workplace nurseries tax exemption, simplify the requirements that employers need to meet to qualify for the exemption, and offer better incentives for employers to support good quality childcare provision. The requirement for the employer to have management responsibility of the childcare facility would be removed.
Source: Employer-Supported Childcare: Consultation document, HM Treasury (020 7270 4558) and Inland Revenue
Links: Consultation Document (pdf) | Press release
Date: 2003-Feb
The government set out details of its strategy for helping parents balance their work and family lives. Proposals to extend paid paternity leave were attacked by employers.
Source: Balancing Work and Family Life: Enhancing Choice and Support for Parents, Department of Trade and Industry (0870 150 2500) and HM Treasury | Press release 14.1.03, Confederation of British Industry (020 7395 8247)
Links: Report (pdf) | CBI press release
Date: 2003-Jan
A report said that the long-hours working culture prevents fathers from being more involved with their children's lives, even though most want to be.
Source: Margaret O'Brien and Ian Shemilt, Working Fathers: Earning and Caring, Equal Opportunities Commission (0845 601 5901)
Links: Report (pdf) | Press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Jan
A government-sponsored survey found that job seekers rank flexible working hours above other benefits.
Source: Survey by James Reed Associates, reported in The Guardian, 2.1.03
Links: Guardian report
Date: 2003-Jan