Companies are starting to learn about the value of working parents and are taking steps to make it easier for them to work. DEBBIE WAITE reports on the often difficult balance between being seeing your children grow and forging a career.

HAVING a family can be a blessing but it can also bring a heap of problems too. Many families rely on dual incomes, but working long hours means less time with the family.

Childcare is also costly and can put paid to some parents' careers altogether. But a recent report has revealed that many parents are struggling needlessly, unaware of the help that is at hand.

Anxious to hold on to their valuable workforces, more and more companies are introducing schemes to make it easier for parents, women in particular, to carry on working.

Researchers at Sheffield Hallam and City Universities questioned 945 staff working in local government, supermarkets and retail banking throughout 2000 and 2001.

They found that 50 per cent of employees did not know about the wide range of policies offered by bosses to help them cope with family life, including compassionate leave, carer's leave, flexitime, shift-swapping and voluntary reduction in working hours.

Not so Swindon Council.

Take Eve Dennis, Mindy Rogers and Sharon Iles.

One is a single mum, one is a new mum and the other juggles work with three children under the age of nine, but they are all managing to enjoy a home life and a career, thanks to their employer.

Eve, 47, is the council's human resources manager and mum to Lydia, 10.

She says: "I've worked for the council ever since Lydia was born and it's thanks to them that I've managed to carry on working full-time.

"The council operates a flexible working programme with a variety of options, including flexible hours, job shares and term-time only contracts.

"So, even though I'm a middle manager, I can still take my daughter to school in the morning.

"And if she's ill, or there's a sudden teacher training day or even a play or parents' evening, I can be there."

Swindon Council employees work to designated core working times of 10am to noon and 2pm to 4pm those are the times when people must be in work, but when they start and finish can vary to suit their needs.

The system is designed to accommodate not only children, but also the needs of other dependents such as partners who need to be cared for or elderly relatives.

Sharon, 40, is a social worker in Swindon's fostering and adoption service. She said: "Without the opportunity to work flexible hours, I would not be able to work full-stop.

"It can be stressful balancing your children's needs with your job, but here I am able to work term time, with days ranging from 9.30am to 2.30pm, or 8am to 1pm.

"I don't want to have to rely on people to take my children to school every day and I want to be able to spend time with them.

"My manager makes it easy for me to enjoy my job and my family."

For new mum Mindy, 34, the council's job share policy was the ideal route to take after having her son Marcus last September.

A committee support secretary, Mindy has cut her hours from 37 to 20 and now works two-and-a-half days a week, leaving her with more time to spend with her son.

She said: "I'm very pleased with how things have worked out. Working a job share means that I have a good balance between my working life and home life."

For more information about issues affecting working parents access www.parentsatwork.org.uk

For information on family benefits and childcare schemes in Swindon go to www.swindon.gov.uk