Mark Prisk, shadow minister for small business and enterprise, has appealed to businesses to come up with ideas to encourage flexible working patterns.

Staff currently have the right to ask for flexible working. Employers also have the right to reasonably refuse. Speaking at the Recruitment Society on 17 October, Prisk said he wanted employers to realise the advantages. "It leads to a more productive workforce".

He pointed to the example of Microsoft, which had had a "huge retention problem" before it offered flexible working.

Prisk said flexible working and childcare would be priorities for an incoming Conservative government.

He said flexible working had the potential to boost the economy and business, and would help people realise their own ambitions. However, he said he was anxious not to legislate. "We don't want to over burden small businesses."

Prisk said he wanted to boost the number of childcare places available, but added: "There are costs. We have to find the right balance."

He said it was important to emphasise productivity and how well people worked, rather than the number of hours they put in.

Prisk said the minimum wage was now on the "cusp" of threatening the numbers employed by some businesses. It recently rose to £5.35 an hour for adults, from £5.05. Essex-based Brookfield Recruitment appears to support Prisk's view on flexibility. Three of its nine staff are working mothers. The company recently won the Mothers at Work award. It said its success is based on a "common sense approach that works both ways". Office manager Amanda Walden said: "I don't take time off unnecessarily and the company doesn't put obstacles in my way when it is essential."

The company says: "There is no formal scheme. The 'scheme' comes from the attitude of the directors."