Flexible Working Requests: The Law and How to Handle Them

Someone wants to change their hours. What now?

A flexible working request often lands by email on a Tuesday. "Can I drop to four days?" Or "Could I start at ten so I can do the school run?" And your first thought, if you are honest, is somewhere between "I want to keep this person happy" and "how on earth do I cover Fridays?"

Flexible working requests are one of the most common things small employers ask us about, and one of the easiest to get wrong if you treat it as a quick yes or no. The law changed in 2024, there is a clear process to follow, and there is more change on the horizon.

Hazel, our Chief Wellbeing Officer, requested flexible working ages ago. She now works a four nap week. We are still negotiating the Friday.

Let's keep this practical.

Quick answer

• Do this: treat every request seriously, talk it through with the employee, and decide in writing within two months.
• Avoid this: ignoring it, saying no on a hunch, or refusing without one of the eight legal business reasons.
• Write down: the request, the meeting, your decision, the business reason if you refuse, and any trial period you agree.

What is a flexible working request?

A flexible working request is a formal ask to change the way someone works. That can mean:

• different hours, fewer or the same hours arranged differently
• different days
• a different start or finish time
• working from home or a different location
• job sharing or part time working

It is a request, not a demand. The employee is asking you to consider a lasting change. You are entitled to look at it as a business owner and make a reasonable, informed decision. What you are not entitled to do is wave it away.

What the law says in 2024

This is the bit that has moved, so even if you think you know the rules, check them.

Since 6 April 2024, the right to request flexible working is a day one right. There is no longer a 26 week service requirement. Someone can ask from their first day of employment.

Other changes from the same date:

• employees can now make up to two requests in any 12 month period, it used to be one
• you must deal with a request within two months, including any appeal, unless you both agree to extend
• you must consult the employee before you refuse a request
• the employee no longer has to explain what effect the change might have on the business or how it could be dealt with

Official guidance: making a flexible working request (gov.uk) and the ACAS Code of Practice on flexible working requests.

The eight reasons you can refuse

You cannot refuse a flexible working request just because you would rather not. You can only turn it down for one or more of eight statutory business grounds:

• the burden of additional costs
• a detrimental effect on the ability to meet customer demand
• an inability to reorganise work among existing staff
• an inability to recruit additional staff
• a detrimental impact on quality
• a detrimental impact on performance
• insufficiency of work during the periods the employee proposes to work
• planned structural changes to the business

These are not magic words. If a request goes to a tribunal, you need to show the ground was genuine and that you actually considered the request, rather than reaching for the nearest reason that sounded plausible.

What might change next

Further reforms have been trailed for 2025. The headline being talked about is that employers may need to show a refusal is reasonable and explain why, rather than simply naming one of the eight grounds. More process around how requests are handled is also expected.

This is forthcoming, not in force on the day this is published, and the detail will come through later regulations. The sensible read for a small business is this: get into the habit now of consulting properly and writing down your reasoning, because that is the clear direction of travel. Keep an eye on ACAS news and Gov.uk updates.

The step by step process

Here is the workable version for a small business.

Step 1: Log the request

When a written request comes in, note the date. Your clock to respond runs from there. Two months sounds like a lot until a busy month eats it.

Step 2: Meet and talk it through

You are not legally forced to hold a meeting in every case, but it is almost always the right move, and you must consult before refusing. A short conversation lets you understand what they actually need. Sometimes someone asks for Fridays off when what they really need is a 3 pm finish on Wednesdays for childcare. You cannot find the compromise if you never have the chat.

Be careful here. If the request links to a protected characteristic, for example a disability or childcare responsibilities that fall more heavily on women, refusing without proper thought can stray into discrimination as well as a flexible working breach. Requests that follow a return from leave are common, so it is worth reading this alongside our maternity and family leave guide. A well known case, Thompson v Scancrown t a Manors, 2021, shows how a poor refusal after maternity leave can lead to an indirect sex discrimination finding and a six figure award.

Step 3: Consider it properly as a business

Ask yourself honestly:

• can we cover the work, or reorganise it among the team
• what does it actually cost us, in money or in customer impact
• could a trial period tell us more than a guess could

Step 4: Offer a trial if you are unsure

A trial period is your friend. If you are not sure a four day week will work, agree to try it for, say, three months with a review. It gives you real evidence rather than a hunch, and it shows good faith if it ever comes to a dispute.

Step 5: Decide in writing

Confirm your decision in writing within the two month window. If you say yes, set out the new arrangement and when it starts. If you say no, name the business ground and explain why it applies. If you agree a compromise, write that down too.

Step 6: Allow a review or appeal

There is no separate statutory right of appeal in the legislation, but the ACAS Code expects you to deal with requests reasonably, and offering the employee a chance to respond to a refusal is good practice. It also gives you a second look before anyone reaches for a tribunal form.

Do not confuse it with time off for dependants

This trips small employers up constantly, so it is worth being clear.

Flexible working is a lasting change to how someone works. Time off for dependants is something else entirely, short, usually unpaid, emergency leave to deal with an unexpected problem involving a child, partner, parent or someone who relies on the employee. The school rings to say a child is unwell, that is dependants leave, not flexible working.

Dependants leave is for the emergency and the immediate aftermath, not an open ended arrangement. The clue is in the word emergency. If the same problem keeps recurring, that is a conversation about a plan B, or possibly a flexible working request, not repeated emergency leave. There is helpful detail in the ACAS guidance on time off for dependants.

Common mistakes and fixes

• Mistake: assuming new starters cannot ask. Fix: it has been a day one right since April 2024.
• Mistake: refusing on a gut feeling. Fix: you must use one of the eight business grounds, and back it up.
• Mistake: missing the deadline. Fix: log the date and diarise the two month limit.
• Mistake: refusing without a conversation. Fix: you must consult before you say no.
• Mistake: forgetting discrimination risk. Fix: where a request links to disability, childcare or religion, think harder, not less.
• Mistake: agreeing verbally and never confirming it. Fix: put the new arrangement in writing so there is no doubt later.

A manager script you can use

If someone asks and you need time to think, you can say:

"Thanks for putting that to me. I want to give it proper consideration rather than answer on the spot, so let's grab half an hour this week to talk it through. I'll come back to you in writing once I've looked at how we can make it work."

If you need to turn it down, you can say:

"I've looked at this carefully and I'm not able to agree it as it stands, because [the business reason]. I want to be straight with you about why. Is there a version of this, maybe a trial or a slightly different pattern, that might work for both of us?"

The tone matters. People remember being heard, even when the answer is no. A flat refusal with no explanation is how a request you could have managed turns into a tribunal claim. Refusals handled badly, particularly where they touch childcare or another protected characteristic, have ended in five figure tribunal awards.

What to write down

For every flexible working request, keep:

• the written request and the date you received it
• notes from any meeting or consultation
• your decision and the date you gave it
• the business ground and your reasoning if you refused
• the terms of any trial period and review date
• any agreed change to the contract, confirmed in writing

If you offer flexible working informally to some people but not others, write down why, or you risk it looking like favouritism, or worse, discrimination.

If you are using an HRIS system

Use it to:

• log requests and the response deadline
• store the request, notes and decision in one place
• track trial periods and review dates
• keep a clean record if a request is ever challenged

Flexible working goes wrong when the request sits in an inbox and the decision lives in a manager's memory.

The upside, because it is not all admin

It is easy to read all this and see only risk. Handled well, flexible working is one of the cheapest retention and recruitment tools a small business has. People who can fit work around their lives tend to stay, work harder, and speak well of you. If you are flexible with your team, they are usually flexible with you when you need cover at short notice. That trade goes both ways.

Bottom line

• the right to request flexible working is a day one right
• employees can make up to two requests in any 12 months
• you must decide within two months and consult before refusing
• you can only refuse on one of eight business grounds
• more process and a reasonableness test are likely in 2025 reforms
• write everything down

Right, what do you do now?

If your flexible working policy still says 26 weeks service, or you have no policy at all and you are handling requests on instinct, that is exactly the sort of gap we pick up in an HR Health Check. We will check what your contracts and handbook actually say, whether your process matches current law, and where the risk is hiding before it becomes a claim.

If you would rather talk it through first, book a no pressure discovery call and we will point you in the right direction.

Book your free HR Health Check, or arrange a discovery call. Day to day questions like these are also exactly what our HR Advice Line and HR Protect support is built for. Kettle on. Standards up. Until next time, keep buzzing and take care of your people!