Saying no to flexible working requests over summer

Insight from your HR consultant in Thanet on what you can and can't do when employees ask for flexible hours during the school holidays.

As a small business owner, you've almost certainly had someone ask to change their hours over summer.

You might assume you can just say yes or no based on what works for you.

Since April 2024, the rules around flexible working have changed. And from October 2026, they're tightening again.

Getting your response wrong could leave you exposed.

Here's what you need to know before those requests land on your desk.

What you can actually do when someone asks

Let's start with the practical side, because that's what matters most when you're busy running a business.

Every request needs to be dealt with on its own merits. You can't have a blanket "no flexible working in summer" rule. It won't hold up.

Each request needs a written response within two months. And if you do turn it down, you need to record which statutory ground you're relying on and why it applies to that specific situation.

Consistency matters too. If you approved a similar arrangement for someone in a comparable role last year, refusing the same thing for someone else this year needs solid reasoning behind it.

Before you say no outright, it's worth having a proper conversation. Could a trial period work for a few weeks? Could the hours be tweaked slightly to make things more manageable? That kind of dialogue shows good faith. It also reduces your risk if the decision is ever challenged.

Myth: you can refuse a request because it's inconvenient

Reality: you can only refuse on one of eight specific grounds set out in law.

There's a common misconception that as the employer, you hold all the cards. You don't. The legislation sets out clear reasons you're allowed to rely on, and "I'd rather not deal with it" isn't one of them.

The permitted grounds include things like the burden of additional costs, a negative effect on your ability to meet customer demand, or the inability to redistribute work among your existing team. Others cover situations where you can't recruit to fill the gap, where quality or performance would suffer, where there isn't enough work during the proposed hours, or where you've got planned structural changes in the pipeline.

I'd highlight two of those in particular for smaller businesses.

The inability to reorganise work is one I see come up a lot. If you've got a small team and one person changing their hours means nobody can cover a key function, that's a legitimate concern. But you need to be able to explain why, specifically, in your business.

The impact on customer demand is another one worth thinking about carefully. If your busiest period overlaps with school holidays and you need all hands on deck, that's a valid reason. Just make sure you can back it up with something concrete rather than a general feeling.

Myth: employees need to earn the right to ask

Reality: flexible working is now a day one right.

Before April 2024, employees had to have 26 weeks of service before they could make a formal request. That's gone.

From their very first day, any employee can submit a flexible working request. They're also entitled to make two requests in any 12-month period. So even if you've already dealt with one, another could follow.

You still have the right to refuse, provided you follow the proper process. But you can't dismiss the request simply because someone is new.

What's changing in October 2026

The Employment Rights Act is introducing a reasonableness test. Right now, you need to identify one of the eight statutory grounds to turn down a request. From October 2026, that won't be enough on its own.

You'll also need to demonstrate that it was reasonable to refuse in your particular circumstances.

That's a meaningful shift. It means the bar is going up. Picking a ground from the list and writing it down won't cut it if your reasoning doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

For example, saying the request would create additional costs is fine as a starting point. But if someone were to ask "how much additional cost, and did you look at ways to reduce it?" you'd need a proper answer.

As part of my HR consultancy services in Thanet, I'm already helping business owners prepare for this change so they're not caught off guard when it takes effect.

Questions worth asking yourself now

Before summer arrives, it's worth doing a bit of a sense check on where you stand.

• Do you have a written flexible working policy that reflects the current rules?
• When was the last time you reviewed how you handle and document these requests?
• If you refused a request tomorrow, could you clearly explain which ground applied and why?
• Are your managers confident they know what they can and can't say when someone raises this informally?
• Have you been consistent in how you've responded to similar requests across your team?

If any of those gave you pause, it's probably worth getting things tightened up sooner rather than later.

Getting your process right before the requests arrive

The key to handling flexible working well is having a clear process in place before you need it. That means a policy your managers understand, a consistent way of assessing each request, and proper documentation of every decision you make.

It also means being prepared to have genuine conversations with your team. A request doesn't have to be all or nothing. Sometimes a small adjustment to the proposed arrangement makes it workable for everyone.

And if you do refuse, your written record of which ground applied and why is your safety net. Without it, you're relying on memory, and that's a risky place to be if a challenge comes months down the line.

Let's have a chat

If you're not sure whether your current process would hold up, or you've got a specific request you're unsure about, I'm happy to talk it through.

As an outsourced HR consultant in Thanet, I work with small businesses to get these things right before they become a problem.

Whether you need help building a flexible working policy from scratch or just want a second opinion on a request that's already come in, get in touch and we can book a discovery call.

Prevention is nearly always cheaper and less stressful than fixing things afterwards.