That is true. However, once employers and managers move from a strict "everyone working nine to five, five days a week" system and start responding to such requests, they find it much easier to comply with them that they thought, and that they can be even more accommodating than the law requires them to be.

Over the next two decades the number of people over 85 is expected to double, and the care given to them by their families will be every bit as important as—if not more important than—the care provided by social services departments and health authorities. We do not want loads of people to have to give up their work because they are providing that important family care, so the question of their ability to work and employers' ability to respond flexibly is a huge one for the future.