Three families charities have been awarded £100,000 to help promote flexible working and family friendly workplaces.

Fathers Network Scotland (FNS), Parenting across Scotland and Working Families received the grant from the Scottish Government ahead of new flexible working laws.

The Family Friendly Working Scotland programme will raise awareness about flexible working and fund Scotland's first dedicated co-ordinator to work directly with employers to support parents at work. New research will look at the challenges faced by Scottish families and in particular by fathers. UK legislation coming into effect in June will see all employees given the right to request flexible working and parents will have a right to shared leave.

David Drysdale, chairman of FNS Scotland, said: "Fathers don't use many of the family-friendly initiatives available because they're not aware of them and, more often than not, because they think their colleagues or employers wouldn't take them seriously."