Flexible Homeworking Policy

The following policy and procedure relating to flexible working & homeworking does not form part of the employees’ terms and conditions of employment. However, it does acknowledge the statutory qualified right of all eligible employees to apply for flexibility in their working arrangements. This policy also sets out how Clarus Education will deal with requests for homeworking, and conditions on which homeworking will be allowed. If you are allowed to work from home, you must comply with this policy.

This policy applies to employees only. This policy does not form part of any employee’s contract of employment, and we may amend it at any time.

Clarus Education recognises the contribution of all its employees and also understands that, at some time in their working lives, employees may wish to work more flexibly. All employees with at least 26 weeks’ continuous service have the statutory right to apply for flexible working.

Flexible working is about reviewing employees’ working patterns to see whether it is possible to implement different arrangements: any arrangements must, however, always take into account the need for the company to achieve its core business purpose as efficiently as is possible.

There are a variety of flexible working options. A request for flexible working can be a request to change:

• The number of hours the employee works.
• The times at which the employee is required to work.
• Where the employee works, usually a request to work fully or partly from home.

Clarus Education recognises that a full range of flexible working will not be appropriate for all areas of its business.

Employees should be aware that if they request and are granted flexible working, this represents a permanent variation to their contract of employment (unless Clarus Education agrees otherwise). In certain circumstances, Clarus Education may agree to the change on a trial basis. If an employee’s circumstances subsequently change in relation to the need for flexible working, there is no statutory right for a return to the terms and conditions that applied to them prior to flexible working being granted.

Clarus Education will:

• Consider requests for flexible working by eligible employees who put in a written request (email accepted).
• Follow the correct procedure as outlined in this policy.
• Reject an application where it is considered that granting flexible working would be detrimental to the business needs of the company.

No employee will be treated less favourably, suffer a detriment or be dismissed because they request flexible working or move to flexible working.

Clarus Education support homeworking in appropriate circumstances either occasionally (to respond to specific circumstances or to complete particular tasks) and in some cases on a regular (full or part-time basis). In addition, occasional or permanent homeworking can, in certain circumstances, be a means of accommodating a disability and can be requested as a means of flexible working.

1. Homeworking Arrangements

There are a number of circumstances in which the ability to work from home on an occasional or temporary basis may be of benefit to you and/or us:

1. when a [child or elderly relative OR dependant] becomes unwell or arrangements for their care break down at short notice;
2. when, despite being fit to work, travelling to the office is difficult (for example, due to recovery from an injury such as a broken leg);
3. when public transport has been disrupted (for example by the weather or by a strike, that affects your travel arrangements); or
4. when a quiet, uninterrupted work environment will assist in dealing with a backlog of administrative tasks or in writing reports to a deadline;
5. when working in an office environment is not possible or practical (for example the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic).

In these circumstances, working at home can be authorised by your Director where, in their opinion it is practical which will include considering:

1. you have work that can be undertaken at home; and
2. working at home is cost-effective and any increase in work that may be passed to your colleagues as a result is kept to a minimum.

Your Directors will, where necessary, liaise with the Human Resources Department to confirm arrangements.

You may want to vary your working arrangements so that, either permanently or for a fixed period, you work from home for all or part of your working week. Any request to work from home must meet the needs of Clarus Education as well as your needs

Although we will use best efforts to follow our procedure set out in section 3 below if we want you to work from home, it is not essential for us to follow the procedure, particularly if not practicable, for example, as in national lockdown caused by the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

2.Switching to full or partial homeworking

After successful completion of your probationary period, you can make an application for homeworking which will be considered on its merits and in accordance with our Flexible Working Policy, or we may want to change your place of work to your home on a fixed-term, permanent, part-time or full-time basis.

A request from you for homeworking is unlikely to be approved, on either an occasional or permanent basis if:

1. you need to be present in the office to perform your job (for example, because it involves a high degree of personal interaction with colleagues or third parties or involves equipment that is only available in the office);
2. your most recent appraisal identifies any aspect of your performance as unsatisfactory;
3. your line manager has advised you that your current standard of work or work production is unsatisfactory;
4. you have an unexpired warning, whether relating to conduct or performance; or
5. you need supervision to deliver an acceptable quality and/or quantity of work.

If you wish to apply to work from home, you will need to be able to show that you can:

1. work independently, motivate yourself and use your own initiative.
2. manage your workload effectively and complete work to set deadlines.
3. identify and resolve any new pressures created by working at home; and
4. adapt to new working practices including maintaining contact with your line manager and colleagues at work.

If we want you to work from home, then we will discuss with you how you can effectively work from home and be supervised by your team leader.

Any terms on which it is agreed that you will work from home will include the following:

1. Clarus Education reserve the right to terminate the homeworking arrangements, for example if your role changes such that homeworking is no longer suitable, subject to reasonable notice. If you want to terminate your homeworking arrangement, you must notify your manager in the first instance. Clarus Education will only be able to accommodate your request if there is sufficient office space and a suitable desk for you.
2. You will be subject to the same performance measures, processes and objectives that would apply if you worked [in the office].
3. Your [team leader & Directors] will remain responsible for supervising you, will regularly review your homeworking arrangements and take steps to address any perceived problems. They will ensure that you are kept up to date with circulars and information relevant to your work.
4. You agree to attend the office or other reasonable location for meetings, training courses or other events which we expect you to attend.
5. You understand that when you do attend the office, you may have to hot desk or share a desk with someone else from another business within the portfolio.
6. Working at or from home may affect your home and contents insurance policy, mortgage, lease or rental agreement. You must make any necessary arrangements with your insurers, bank, mortgage provider or landlord before commencing homeworking.

3. Working at Home: Equipment

Clarus Education will provide any equipment that we consider you reasonably require to work from home which will remain our property, or we will ensure that you have adequate personal equipment with up to date and maintained IT security installed. Clarus Education will bear the cost of returning the PC equipment. Where equipment is provided you must:

1. use it only for the purposes for which we have provided it;
2. take reasonable care of it and use it only in accordance with any operating instructions and our policies and procedures; and
3. make it available for collection by us or on our behalf when requested to do so.

It is your responsibility to ensure that you have sufficient and appropriate equipment for working from home, including maintained IT security programmes. Clarus Education are not responsible for the provision, maintenance, replacement, or repair in the event of loss or damage to any personal equipment used by you when working for us. Clarus Education are happy to contribute to your Wi-Fi costs.

4. Working at Home: Data Security and Confidentiality

All equipment and information must be kept securely. You should take all necessary steps to ensure that private and confidential material is kept secure at all times. The Directors must be satisfied that all reasonable precautions are being taken to maintain confidentiality of material in accordance with our requirements.

You may only use equipment which has been provided by or authorised by us. You agree to comply with our instructions relating to software security and to implement all updates to equipment as soon as you are requested to do so.

You confirm that you have read and understood our policies relating to computer use, electronic communications and data security and that you will regularly keep yourself informed of the most current version of these policies.

If you discover or suspect that there has been an incident involving the security of information relating to the company, clients, customers or anyone working with or for the company, you must report it immediately to your manager.

You remain subject to all of our policies, including those on IT, confidentiality, data protection and using your own devices whilst working from home. [You must use screen-lock and a password to open your computer so others in your household cannot access our systems.  You must not download documents from our online system on to your personal devices without permission and you should minimise the need to print hard copies of information held on our systems.  If information is printed from our system, then you must keep the hard copies in a secure location and dispose of the hard copies securely after use, for example, by shredding.

5. Working at Home: Health and Safety

When working at home, you have the same health and safety duties as other staff. You must take reasonable care of your own health and safety and that of anyone else who might be affected by your actions and omissions.

Clarus Education retain the right to check home working areas for health and safety purposes. The need for such inspections will depend on the circumstances including the nature of the work undertaken.  We may also ask you to undertake a health and safety audit of your working conditions and submit your findings to us and this should be kept under regular review. You must notify us of any changes to your home working conditions.

You must not have meetings in your home with customers and should not give customers your home address or telephone number.

You must ensure that your working patterns and levels of work both over time and during shorter periods are not detrimental to your health and wellbeing.

You must use your knowledge, experience and training to identify and report any health and safety concerns to your line manager.