It's a bit of a long one, but I'm after a bit of advice from someone with experience in employment law. Thanks in advance 
I'm currently nine months into maternity leave. Unfortunately, I've had issues with my line manager pretty much from the start of my pregnancy. The current problem is to do with my flexible working request.
I put in a written request at the start of July to reduce my hours from full to part time. I used the template from the gov.uk website, so as far as I'm aware I worded it correctly and included everything I should. My manager phoned when she received the letter, saying it shouldn't be a problem but that she would need to confirm things with the head of department.
At that point I was under the impression that my employers had three months to officially respond to the request. I hadn't had anything official by the start of September so I chased her up. She eventually got back to me saying hr had giving her a form for me to complete my request on and could I return it to her. It was asking for the exact same information I put in my letter but I completed it anyway. I did however back date it to when I put on my original request and attached a covering letter stating it was part of the original request and that they needed to respond by the start of October.
That came and went so I emailed her pointing out I needed to know what was happening so I could arrange childcare, but no response. Tried again last week and she replied saying the head of department wasn't in that day, but she would 'have a chat with him' the next day and get back to me then. This was three days ago.
Looking into things further I'm now under the impression that they should have responded withing 28 days of my original request, and that I might be able to claim compensation, but that there is a time limit on this.
I'm a bit of a people pleaser and I don't relish confrontation but I know I'm going to have to do something to get this sorted. I'm just trying to make sure I've got all my facts straight before I decide what to do next. I'd be grateful if someone could point me in the right direction.
God, that was long! Thanks again!