Are you feeling family-friendly? Are you feeling well?
That's no way to respond to good news from government. Now I'muneasy.
I assume you're talking about the proposed changes to parental leavethat were trailed in Choice for Parents, aka the 10-year strategy forchildcare, with the phrase "choice and flexibility".
That's the one. In it the Government committed itself to making iteasier for parents to balance work and family life. And that meansenabling parents to take off more time during the first 12 months oftheir child's life and to make use of flexible working practices.
And that's good, isn't it? For those in work who want to work, yes. Butthe concept of choice had two sides to it in that paper: a work/liferebalance by giving parents more control over when and how much timethey spend with their children; and the availability of accessible,high-quality, affordable and flexible childcare services. The Work andFamilies Bill that was published on 18 October provides a framework forthe former.
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