Flexible working requests

Every employee in Great Britain can ask for flexible working from their first day in the job. You can make two requests in any 12 months, your employer must decide within two months (including any appeal), and it has to talk to you before it turns you down. A refusal must rest on one of eight business reasons set out in law. This day-one right has applied since 6 April 2024.

What counts as flexible working

Flexible working is any change to the hours you work, the times you work them or where you work. Common requests in public sector jobs include:

• reducing hours or days (going part-time)
• compressed hours, such as a full-time week over four days
• term-time-only working
• changing start and finish times
• job sharing
• working from home for some or all of the week
• annualised hours, where you work a set total over the year

In the NHS, councils and the Civil Service, all of these are already common, and most employers have a written flexible working policy that goes further than the legal minimum. Schools are more limited because the timetable fixes when teachers are needed, but part-time and job-share teaching posts are widespread. The public sector flexible working guide looks at how each sector handles requests in practice.

How to make a request

A statutory request has to be in writing. It should say:

1. that it is a statutory request for flexible working
2. the change you want and when you want it to start
3. what effect, if any, you think the change would have on the service and how it could be handled
4. whether you have made a previous request, and when

You no longer have to explain why you want the change, although giving a reason can help your employer see how it would work. Most employers have a form on the intranet or in the HR policy. Use it if there is one, because it usually prompts you for everything above.

Think about the practical detail before you send it. If you are a ward nurse asking to stop night shifts, say how the rota could be covered. If you are a council officer asking for two home-working days, say which tasks you would do at home and how colleagues and the public could reach you.

What your employer has to do

Your employer must deal with the request in a reasonable manner. In practice that means:

• considering it properly, not rejecting it out of hand
• consulting you before refusing (usually a meeting, which many employers let you bring a colleague or union rep to)
• giving you a decision, including any appeal, within two months of receiving the request, unless you both agree to extend that time
• telling you the reason if it refuses

If the employer agrees, the change is normally permanent and goes into your contract. If you want it to be temporary, say so in the request.

The eight reasons for refusal

An employer can only refuse for one or more of these business reasons:

• the burden of additional costs
• a detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand
• inability to reorganise work among existing staff
• inability to recruit additional staff
• a detrimental impact on quality
• a detrimental impact on performance
• insufficient work during the periods you propose to work
• planned structural changes

The list is wide, and most refusals can be fitted into one of the reasons. What an employer cannot do is give a reason that is not on the list or base a refusal on facts that are wrong. If you think the refusal is really about something else, such as your sex, age or a disability, that may be discrimination, which is a separate and stronger claim. See the discrimination at work guide.

If your request is turned down

Check your employer’s policy for an appeal. There is no legal duty to offer one, but almost all public sector employers do, and the appeal has to be finished within the two-month window.

If the employer did not follow the process (it missed the deadline, did not consult you, or refused for a reason not on the list), you can complain to an employment tribunal. Before that you must contact ACAS for early conciliation. Compensation for a pure flexible working claim is limited, so many people use the grievance route first. The grievance guide explains how that works.

A refusal does not stop you asking again later, but the two-requests-in-12-months limit still applies. A union rep can often help you reframe a request so it answers the objection, for example by offering a different pattern or a trial.

Changes planned under the Employment Rights Act 2025

The Employment Rights Act 2025 will change the flexible working rules. The government’s timeline lists flexible working changes for 2027, with no exact date set. The planned change is to make it harder to refuse: an employer will have to show that a refusal is reasonable, not only that it fits one of the eight reasons. Until the new rules come into force, the process above applies. The Employment Rights Act 2025 guide tracks the dates as they are confirmed.

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland has its own flexible working law, which has not followed every change made in Great Britain. If you work for an HSC trust, the Education Authority, a council or the NI Civil Service, check your employer’s policy and the nidirect guidance, or ask your union, before relying on the dates above.