Flexible Working

In recruiter context

The 2024 reform removed the old 26-week qualifying period. You can now ask for compressed hours, part-time, term-time, hybrid, or fully remote from day one, and you can make two requests in any 12 months. Employers must respond within two months and can only refuse on one of eight statutory grounds (cost, customer demand, etc.). In practice, recruiters tell me employers are using "insufficient work" and "performance impact" as the soft refusals. Frame the request around business benefit, not personal need — that's what gets approved.