According to official figures from the Office for National Statistics, two in five public sector workers enjoyed flexible working options in the last quarter of 2018. The data found that about the proportion of people who were offered flexible working was double that of private sector workers.
Professions with the most accessibility to choose flexible work options include local and national government administrators at 65% and teaching support assistants at 74%. Police officers and nurses and midwives had the lowest proportion of flexible workers.
Although 17% of private sector workers claimed to mostly work from home, only 3% of the people in the public sector do, likely due to the nature of their work.
Such complicating factors are seen across various careers. For example, 46% of people working in education saying they can work flexibly, but about 76% of their flexible work patterns are term-time only work.