Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to improve the entitlement to flexible working for NHS staff.

Employers are responsible for ensuring that staff requests for flexible working are fully considered, balancing operational delivery requirements with what staff want.

Legally, all staff who have been employed for 26 weeks or more are entitled to ask for flexible working.

The Government wants to improve opportunities for flexible working. The Department is working with system leaders at NHS Improvement, NHS England and NHS Employers, to explore whether best use is being made of existing flexible working arrangements in the National Health Service; improving the use of e-rostering across the NHS to help trusts better plan the use of their workforce; reviewing whether staff contracts and/or terms and conditions of service can give greater emphasis to encouraging flexible working; encouraging line manager training to improve conversations in response to flexible working requests and ensuring staff have a clear understanding of what flexible working arrangements may be available to them locally.