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Executive Summary
This written response to the Women and Equalities Committee has been submitted by the Southampton Business School and Work Futures Research Centre (WFRC) at the University of Southampton, based upon learnngs from three research projects:
- Work after Lockdown
- Post-pandemic case studies in five sectors
- Young people and hybrid working
Flexible working is a vital tool for disabled people, but access to desired flexible working arrangements can be uneven. The flexible working provisions of the Employment Act 2025 are a positive development but may have limited impact. Additionally, return-to-office requirements could disproportionately disadvantage disabled employees.
The authors of this written evidence put forward recommendations to enhance disabled employees' access to flexible working, including:
- Provide clearer guidance on applying the ERA's 'reasonableness' test in disability-related cases
- Build better employer understanding of reasonable adjustments
- Encourage greater transparency about flexible working in job advertisements
- Improve access to schemes such as Access to Work
- Reconvene the Flexible Working Taskforce
On Wednesday 2 September, Dr Jane Parry gave oral evidence to the Women and Equalities Committee academic panel about disabled people's access to flexible work. Watch the oral evidence session here.
Contributors:
Professor Jane Parry, Associate Professor of Work and Employment at Southampton Business School and Co-Director of the Work Futures Research Centre.
Dr Mina Beigi, Professor of Career Studies at Southampton Business School.
Dr Michail (Michalis) Veliziotis, Associate Professor of Human Resource Management within Southampton Business School.
