Working Families

Who we are

At Working Families, we believe that no parent or carer should be forced to choose between thriving at home and thriving at work. That's why we’re on a mission to remove the barriers that people with caring responsibilities face in the workplace so that parents and carers can successfully blend life and work. We do this by giving free legal advice to parents and carers on their rights at work, helping employers create flexible workplaces, and influencing government policy. 

We’ve been around for over 40 years, and in that time have helped to drive forward significant change, most recently legislation on Flexible Working and Neonatal Care. In the past year alone over 1,000,000 parents and carers have accessed our advice pages and helpline and we have supported 130 employer members to create flexible and family-friendly workplaces. 2024 is shaping up to be another big year, what with being instrumental in setting up the All-Party-Parliamentary Group on Flexible Working, and exciting projects with employers under way.

We’re a small but ever-expanding team of 25 people that work remotely but meet up once a month. As advocates of flexible and family-friendly working, we walk the talk, with a fully flexible working model and supportive policies including 10 days of emergency leave for parents and carers, and equalised new parent leave of 6 weeks full pay and 6 weeks half pay.

When you work with us, you can expect to work in a role that has been designed to fit the number of hours you work. You can expect to be fully supported and listened to. You can expect a culture that embraces everyone being themselves and bringing their whole selves to work. And you can expect to work in an organisation that is continually striving to the best it can be, for its people and for the UK’s working parents and carers.

Our culture and values

Our vision

We want to achieve a society in which everyone can fully meet their work and caring responsibilities, where all parents and carers have an equal opportunity to find and progress in secure, paid work.

Our mission

Our mission is to remove the barriers that people with caring responsibilities face in the workplace. We drive positive change by empowering working parents and carers, supporting employers to build flexible and family-friendly cultures, and influencing government policy.

Our values

We are collaborative. We are one team working in a connected and communicative way internally and externally to maximise achievement of our shared goals.

We are practical. We see the whole picture and use this authoritative perspective to deliver tangible support to families and employers.

We are inclusive. We nurture an open and safe culture that enables everyone to be themselves at work. We strive to ensure that our work reaches a full range of families and employers.

We are driven. We leverage our collective knowledge, commitment, and skills to do an expert job for our beneficiaries, supporters, and colleagues.

Equality, diversity and inclusion policy

Working Families is committed to creating an inclusive workplace and organisational culture:   

• to attract diverse talent to work with us and drive the charity’s success 
• to empower working parents and carers to understand and use their workplace rights across the UK, regardless of their situation or background 
• to build creative and productive relationships with employers to create and sustain successful flexible and family-friendly workplaces 
   

We don’t pretend to have all the answers yet.  

We’re on a journey to create a more inclusive culture for the future, so the charity is sustainable and successful in its efforts to remove the barriers that people with caring responsibilities face in the workplace. 

We want everyone who works with us to feel confident to be themselves.