Championing flexible working on International Parents Day - 26 July

By Helen Connor 26 July 2025

It’s probably no coincidence that International Parents Day falls at the start of the 6 week- summer holiday period in the UK. It’s a time when parents need compassion and understanding more than ever. A need to be seen and acknowledged in the workplace because many are trying to solve the biggest conundrum in a parent’s annual calendar – 6 weeks of fulltime childcare with just 25 days of annual leave!  

In this blog, LAIN team member @Helen Connor and mum of three young children aged 6, 7 and 9 explains how she plans to survive the summer holidays as a working parent without going completely mad.   

Summer holidays… 

It’s a time of chaos for most working parents as they battle to work while maintaining happy households with sticking plaster childcare options including; a chaotic combination of holiday camps (that rarely last a full working day), family and friends’ goodwill (slowly waning), half days and annual leave (mostly solo parenting as your other half – if you have one - is using the other days to cover you when you’re working!).  

Flexible working at this time of year is a not a luxury, it’s a necessity for me. Having worked at the Greater London Authority (GLA) now for nearly three years, for the months of July and August I’m reminded of how, without the flexibility my job offers me as a working parent, I probably wouldn’t be in employment at all. 

And starkly, that is the reality for many mothers who, before children, had thriving careers, but statistics tell us are not returning to the workplace.  

Research tells us that ‘people looking after family and home’ are one of the main economically inactive groups, with the number of women aged 24-35 who have left work to look after family rising 13% in the last year and maternal employment rates in London remaining the lowest in the UK.  

Fewer than one in five new mothers return to full-time work within the first three years after maternity leave, and this number further decreases to 15% after five years, according to Understanding Society – The UK Household Longitudinal Study.  

After three maternity leaves with a previous employer, I began my own personal crusade to find part-time, flexible employment that would allow me to thrive as a professional and as a mother. 

The GLA’s flexible working policies allow me to achieve that. The autonomy I get to manage my working day, the flexibility of hybrid working and a supportive organisational culture that proactively supports work-life balance allows me the freedom to create a working week that suits not only business needs but that of my family. This has been a game-changer.  

Working provides me with a tremendous sense of fulfilment outside of being a parent. It provides my family with a valuable income stream and the flexibility I have in the workplace is supportive of my mental health. Flexible working boosts my productivity as I can work at times that suit me best. 

LAIN’s Childcare Working Group is focussed on creating more good work opportunities for working parents, particularly mothers, in anchor organisations by championing flexible working policies particularly in challenging 24-hour operational sectors like health and transport. The group is also focussed on supporting the early years sector that is struggling with unprecedented levels of vacancies and skills shortages.  

It is a subject matter close to my heart.  

Fixing the childcare conundrum is key to unlocking gender pay gaps and there are big economic prizes to be won. According to LAIN member BusinessLDN’s report No Kidding: How transforming childcare can boost the economy creating flexible jobs for economically inactive parents could increase annual GDP by between £2.8bn and £11.3bn. 

So, here’s to another summer of chaos! Thankfully I’m looking forward it because of the flexibility afforded to me by employer. I know it’s not the same story for others.  

How my summer looks this year: 

• Remote working where needed 

• A week of half days – mornings in work and afternoons with the children 

• 2 weeks of help from family and friends (absolute legends) 

• 3 weeks annual leave (for travel and making lasting family memoriesmaking memories).  

How does your summer look?