From modern workplaces to modern families – re-envisioning the work–family conflict

Abstract

The Modern Workplaces Consultation 2011 set the foundations for the current revisions to work–family rights in the UK. They are underpinned by a desire to make modern workplaces more flexible and responsive to the needs of working families. The Children and Families Act 2014 implements, in part, the consultation’s proposals, but falls far short of its most significant recommendations. Nevertheless, it does extend access to work–family rights to some alternative working family models. The analysis undertaken here, however, indicates that this is limited to families that most closely conform to the dual-partnered working family model. Drawing from Fineman, Herring and McGlynn’s references to relationships of care, it is argued that instead of re-branding current rights the government should re-envision the concept of the family and family care. It is only through renegotiating the categories of caregiving recognised in law that the needs of modern working families will genuinely be met.