Employment laws protecting parents

Marcon

theoretica said:

Any employee has a legal right to make a formal request for flexible working, and there are specific reasons which employers may (and may not) use for turning down such a request.  This sounds like what your friend needs to look up and do.

Currently those reasons cover pretty much any eventuality: https://www.acas.org.uk/responding-to-a-flexible-working-request/if-the-request-is-not-possible

The new measures coming into force next year might help, assuming OP's friend can wait that long.

gwynlas

Picking up a child from secondary school does not sound of great importance unless the child lives outside the catchment area and there is no suitable public transport or they are attending after school activities for which no such transport available. Most secondary school children would be happy to look after themselves for an hour or two after school until they could be picked up. Would flexible working hours eg earlier start shorter lunch break work for the parent? If they are valued for what they do there should be some informal scope for adjustments.

TBagpuss

AS above, your friend can made a request for flexible working. They don't need to specify why they are asking, they need to follow the government guidance (and any specify internal policy/process their employer has) 

Per government guidance:

An employee should email or write a letter to their employer.

Employers may ask employees to use a standard form to make an application.

What the email or letter must include

The application must include:

• the date
• a statement that this is a statutory request
• details of how the employee wants to work flexibly and when they want to start
• an explanation of how they think flexible working might affect the business and how this could be dealt with, for example if they’re not at work on certain days
• a statement saying if and when they’ve made a previous application

They can specifically set out how they would ensure that their works continues to be covered without putting extra strain on other people - e.g. that they will / propose to work from home for a couple of hours, or they could look at whether asking to start early and work a shorter lunch, in order to be able to leave earlier, would be feasible.

 

prettyandfluffy

Has the parent explored whether the school offer any help or after school activities?

elsien

first78 said:

The person I am trying to help is a single parent. At the moment they often use annual leave for a few hours a week to enable them to pick their child up from secondary school. They feel unable to ask their boss for the flexibility to do the school run and make up their work later in the evening. Their workplace will not support them working part time.
This individual is a full time parent, full time employee and often works until late at night to ensure they get their work done. They are diligent and dedicated to their job and it feels horrible to watch them becoming burnt out because of a lack of employer support.

They are already working late at night so where do they think going to be able to make the time up if they are already working extra hours.

it seems to me that your friend’s stress problem isn’t the school pick up time. It’s how the work has to be managed and whether it is doable in the time available, which might be a more useful exploration to prevent burnout.

Undervalued

Whilst this employer may not be particularly "family friendly" are they actually doing anything unlawful?

Just because some employers go the extra mile in this respect doesn't mean all are obliged to do so. Unless this employer is actually breaking the rules AND there is a realistic and cost effective remedy available, then it may be that the only option is to look elsewhere for more suitable employment.

TELLIT01

first78 said:

The person I am trying to help is a single parent. At the moment they often use annual leave for a few hours a week to enable them to pick their child up from secondary school. They feel unable to ask their boss for the flexibility to do the school run and make up their work later in the evening. Their workplace will not support them working part time.
This individual is a full time parent, full time employee and often works until late at night to ensure they get their work done. They are diligent and dedicated to their job and it feels horrible to watch them becoming burnt out because of a lack of employer support.

Having to regularly work late in order to get their work done generally indicates one of two things 1)  The workload is too great or 2) the person is really not up to doing the job required of them, for whatever reason.  Are other people at the company who do the same job struggling? 

The person who is struggling needs to speak to their manager in the first instance and then start working their contracted hours.