This week a new government ruling declared a host of reformed measures for parents in the workplace.

Today, Debbie Watson asks how the changes will impact on parents - and their childless colleagues - here in Suffolk, and reports on ARFS, a company already implementing flexible working schedule.

Let's face facts: Parenting was just never meant to be easy.

No matter what way you look at it, however rewarding you expected it to be - parenting was never going to be a painless quest.

It was always going to consist of sleepless nights, of screaming tantrums, of hysterical tears and weary days. It was always going to be tough.

But, as any working parent knows only too well, if you're willing (or brave enough) to add a career life to that family obligation - things simply couldn't get more complex.

The fact is, the workplace brings with it a whole set of complications for any modern-day mum or dad. By its very nature, it places more demands, more pressures - and more potential pitfalls - on Britain's population of child-rearers.

At the top of the list, inevitably, is the matter of childcare.

Any mum who has ever returned to work - and that's now 64 per cent of the parenting female population - will have faced that hugely heart-rending moment of leaving their child in the arms of another.

And then there's the money. More and more families are having to weigh up the big financial choice between paying a childminder, or not going back to the office and inflicting that cost on the family purse in the first place.

And finally, there's the obvious time factor. With children to see to and arrangements to be made, more parents would relish the opportunity of a more flexible - and manageable - working day.

Well, after several years of speculation and promise, those very factors finally fell within the remit of a new government unit known as the Work and Parents Taskforce. Under the directive of ministers and industry officials, that group worked toward a collective principle which could be used to govern the nation's parenting dilemma. And now they have finally confirmed their thoughts in the form of extensive workplace proposals.

The new guidelines come in the wake of a landmark court decision, which found in favour of Policewoman Michelle Chew - a mother of two whose employers refused to make her exempt from shift patterns in order for her to care for her youngsters. That verdict will now be hailed as a significant employment stepping stone, and a warning to those who flout the new 'flexibility' laws.

From April 2003, mothers - and fathers - can now expect increased maternity/paternity rights, adopters' paid leave, improved Working Family Tax Credit provisions, more childcare places, and, most importantly, better working hours.

"Fathers and mothers want more choice about how they balance work and family," commented Trade and Industry secretary, Patricia Hewitt.

"The best businesses have already discovered that flexibility works for businesses as well as individuals. I believe these proposals will set in place legal standards that will revolutionise the culture of the workplace."

But, revolutionary or not, these proposals might not form the perfect answer for every member of Britain's workforce. Essentially, the taskforce guidelines dictate a new system whereby anyone with young children can now request a more 'workable' set of hours, and a more convenient daily agenda.

They will be able to request a suitable working arrangement via their employer, and will obtain more rights wherever such flexibility is either partially or categorically refused.

In the eyes of the 3.8 million parents who will be eligible for such alternatives, this news could of course be no better.

Finally they are granted a system where childcare, household obligations, working hours and parental demands are all potentially 'manageable' within their existence. However, for those workers who don't have children, great resentment is already fast being anticipated.