Advice from an HR consultant in Milton Keynes on what's changed around flexible working and how to handle holiday requests properly.
The law around flexible working shifted in April 2024.
If you've been dealing with summer requests the same way you always have, you could already be on shaky ground.
From October 2026, the rules are tightening further. Turning down a request will require more than just picking a reason from a list.
Here's what you need to know before the next round of holiday requests lands on your desk.
Flexible working is now a day one right
Before April 2024, employees had to clock up at least six months of service before they could submit a flexible working request. That qualifying period no longer exists.
Any member of your team can now ask for a change to their working pattern from the very first day of their employment. They're also entitled to submit up to two requests in any twelve-month period.
Once you receive a request, you've got two months to give a written response. Not two months to think about it and then have a chat. Two months to provide a formal, documented decision.
For a busy business owner, that deadline can creep up fast, especially during the summer when you're already stretched.
What's coming in October 2026
The Employment Rights Act is introducing an additional layer on top of the existing rules. Right now, you can refuse a flexible working request by citing one of eight statutory grounds. From October 2026, that won't be enough on its own.
You'll also need to demonstrate that your refusal was reasonable in the specific circumstances of your business. So it won't be sufficient to simply state that a request would affect customer demand. You'll need to explain why that's genuinely the case for your situation.
This is a meaningful shift. It moves the bar from "did you have a reason" to "was your reason justified."
The grounds you can rely on to refuse
There are eight statutory reasons that allow you to turn down a flexible working request. A few of these tend to come up most often for smaller businesses during the summer months.
Impact on your ability to serve customers. If someone's proposed hours would leave gaps in coverage that directly affect your clients, that's a valid concern. But you need to be specific about how and why.
Not being able to redistribute the work. In a small team, there may genuinely be nobody else who can pick up the slack. If you've only got a handful of people and one person wants to drop a day, the maths might not add up.
Additional cost to the business. Bringing in temporary cover or paying overtime to other staff members creates a financial burden. If the numbers don't work, that's a legitimate ground.
The remaining grounds include detrimental effects on quality or performance, insufficient work during the proposed hours, an inability to recruit additional staff, and planned structural changes. All eight are valid, but only if the issue genuinely applies to your business.
What you can't do is refuse because the request feels like a hassle. Convenience isn't a statutory ground.
How to deal with each request properly
One of the biggest mistakes I see is business owners applying a blanket rule across the board. Something like "nobody works from home during summer" or "we don't do reduced hours in July and August." That approach doesn't hold up legally. Every single request needs to be assessed on its own merits.
Here's what good practice looks like:
Treat each request separately. Even if you get five requests in the same week, each one deserves its own consideration and its own written outcome. The circumstances will differ from person to person.
Check your track record. If you approved a similar arrangement for someone in a comparable role last summer, refusing the same thing for a different employee needs a solid explanation. Inconsistency is one of the quickest ways to find yourself in difficulty.
Look at alternatives before you say no. Perhaps the full request doesn't work, but a modified version could. A trial period of a few weeks, or a slight adjustment to the proposed hours, might solve the problem for both sides. Having that conversation demonstrates good faith and protects you if the decision is ever challenged.
If you do turn a request down
Document it properly. Write down which of the eight grounds applies and, critically, explain why it applies in this particular case.
A one-line note saying "customer demand" isn't going to cut it. You need enough detail to show that you genuinely considered the request and reached a fair conclusion. That written record is what you'll fall back on if the employee raises a complaint or takes things further.
With the reasonableness test arriving in October 2026, your documentation will carry even more weight. Getting into good habits now will save you real headaches later.
Getting your flexible working policy in order
If you don't already have a clear flexible working policy, now is the time to put one in place. And if you do have one, it's worth checking that it reflects the current rules.
A solid policy gives you a framework for handling requests consistently. It sets expectations for your team about how the process works. And it gives you something to point to if a decision is ever questioned.
Alongside the policy, you need a consistent process for logging requests, making decisions, and keeping records. HR consultancy services across the UK can help you build all of this so that you're not starting from scratch every time a request comes in.
Questions worth asking yourself
Before summer arrives, it's worth taking a few minutes to think about where you stand:
🟢 Do you have a written flexible working policy that reflects the April 2024 changes?
🟢 Could you explain clearly, in writing, why you refused a request if an employee challenged it?
🟢Have you been consistent in how you've responded to similar requests from different team members?
🟢 Are you confident you could meet the two-month response deadline during your busiest period?
If any of those feel uncertain, it's better to address them now than to deal with the fallout later.
Summer requests don't have to be stressful. With the right policy and process in place, you can handle them confidently and fairly.
As an outsourced HR consultant in Milton Keynes, I work with small and medium-sized businesses within the UK to get their flexible working arrangements on solid ground. Whether you need help building a policy, responding to a specific request, or preparing for the October 2026 changes, I'm happy to talk it through.
Get in touch to book a discovery call. It's a straightforward conversation about where you are now and what support would help. 📱 0781 3084152 or email 📧 daxa@hrresultsltd.co.uk Taking your HR from 'to do' to 'done'.
Share this post: