‘Parents putting in extra hours at work and missing out on family time’

Just a third of UK working parents go home on time every day and one in 10 spend less that an hour with their family on a working day, according to a new study.

The study by Working Families and Bright Horizons also found 41% of UK working parents do extra hours in the evenings or weekends, after they have gone home, all the time or often.  This rises to over 60% of parents in London.

Other findings are that working parents in London go home on time most often (41%); with parents in the South West going home on time least often (28%). For two in five UK working parents, work is regularly stopping them putting their children to bed.  This rises to three in five parents in London.  Parents in Scotland are most likely to be there at bedtime (42%).

Sarah Jackson OBE, Chief Executive of Working Families, said: “Families need time as well as money to thrive. But, these findings show that for too many families work erodes the time that they spend together. We need human-sized jobs that fit in the hours allocated to them.

“Today’s the longest day of the year. We’re calling on everyone to make the most of it by going home on time and spending precious hours with their families.”

Denise Priest, Director of Employer Partnerships, Bright Horizons, said: “Work in the modern era is constantly bumping up against personal lives.  Research shows us that employees seek and value employers who support family and work fitting together, and who truly care about the effects of work demands on families.”

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