Civil service contractual homeworkers

[Mamabear256]

Hi everyone

I’ve applied for contractual homework yesterday. Had a meeting with my manager to discuss it. The reasoning for this is a disability. I’ve tried on 1 day a week office attendance and still struggle with my disability.

I am now worrying and probably overthinking. Will contractual homework in stop me from applying for new roles and progressing? Will I be at a disadvantage? And would I be able to change back to an office contract easily enough if I wanted to (with a reasonable adjustment for office attendance).

Is anyone currently a contractual homeworker, or has anyone been one at any point and managed to change back to an office contract? Has anyone had trouble with promotions?

Any experiences would be greatly appreciated

If you can’t manage one day pw office attendance, I’m presuming Occupational Health are involved. What I don’t understand is you mentioning you could attend the office if you wanted to. Are you expecting your health / disability to improve, e.g. after surgery or convalescence etc.

What I don’t understand is you mentioning you could attend the office if you wanted to. Are you expecting your health / disability to improve, e.g. after surgery or convalescence etc.

I wondered this too. I think if home working is deemed necessary for reasons of health and disability then you'd have to go through OH and demonstrate what had changed health wise in order to return to office working.

Not in civil service proper, but in an ALPB sponsored by a department, and in the PCSPS, so very similar. I’m a contractural homeworker, because all my team were when I started 20 years ago. People recruited into the team in the past 10 years or so are hybrid, and I’ve never had any issue with promotions and other opportunities when up against them. No difference at all. One colleague couldn’t hack homeworking and was allowed to go back to full time office working. Everyone in the organisation apart from the legacy contractural homeworkers is now hybrid, and it all works fine.

Theoretically it shouldn't be an issue, realistically though it could very well stunt promotion opportunities unfortunately.

Thanks all for your responses. My condition fluctuates. At the moment it’s really bad however in a few years it may improve and I may be ok with 1 day a week. I’m just trying to think of all scenarios and cover them all to make sure this is the right decision

TBH yes. There will be some roles and some jobs that you cannot do.

Mod. FCDO. Interesting parts of Cabinet Office. A fair bit of Home Office. Any Private Office. Some parts of MoJ as well. Maybe some of DfE. Lots of DfT.

In jobs that cover ‘soft’ material (as my PUS describes it) and you only need Basline checks (essentially you’re right to work) then it will be easier. But you’ll still face a challenge - particularly if you want to become senior or move to a role that requires briefing/stakeholder meetings etc.

ALB would be your best bet tbh.

Thank you. Sorry, what’s ALB?

Arms length body! (Sorry)! So that would be something like British Council (although they don’t like the term) or IMB (in MOJ) etc. they’re part of govt and have govt contracts but their work is usually more flexible, at least in my experience :)

I am home based but as a reasonable adjustment still contracted to a home office just not expected to attend