Hybrid working could help get more disabled people into work, peers say
Ministers could encourage employers to allow more hybrid and remote working to help get greater numbers of disabled people and carers into the workplace, according to a House of Lords committee.A report by a cross-party committee says the government should set out whether it has considered including remote and hybrid working in back-to-work initiatives to offer more working flexibility to people with disabilities and long-term health conditions.The home-based working committee was set up in January to investigate how the rise of remote and hybrid working has affected employers, employees and the wider British economy.It heard evidence that remote and hybrid working made it easier for disabled people to manage their condition, partly through avoiding the commute.“Many disabled people, parents and carers may have an improved experience of work or may even be able to work where this would otherwise not be possible,” the committee found.
Hybrid working – where employees split their time between the office and home or another location – has become the new normal for more than a quarter (28%) of working adults in the UK, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.However, the committee found access to home working was unequal and it was more likely to be available to professionals, university graduates or people living in London.It said a hybrid approach could offer the “best of both worlds” by giving employees a better work-life balance while also helping employers to bring teams together to collaborate for part of the week.The report warns, however, of a lack of investment in training bosses to support hybrid or remote workers, and it calls on ministers to incentivise employers to put money into management training.Amid a string of return-to-office mandates from some large companies over the past year, the committee found most employers and their employees were broadly in favour of hybrid working.
However, there remains a “preference gap” as most workers said they would like to spend two days a week in the office, while their employers would like to see them there three days a week.Rosalind Scott, the committee’s chair, said: “There are obvious advantages for employees not having to commute in every day, and flexibility around work-life balance, particularly if you’ve got caring responsibilities.But there are also ways it’s really working for employers.They told us they can recruit from slightly further afield, they get more job applicants if they advertise hybrid working and there is also some evidence sickness absence is reduced.”Policies at most companies to have ordered staff back to the office “amount to formalising hybrid working”, the committee found, with full-time office attendance demanded by only a few outlier firms, including the US retailer Amazon.
The committee recommended employers and employees should be left to manage hybrid working arrangements themselves rather than it be included in government legislation.However, peers believe there is a role for ministers to provide more guidance to staff and businesses.
‘I’m now a one-issue voter’: US shoppers fear Italian pasta tariff will cause shortage
On Monday night, Kelly planned to make dinner and spend the night inside with her family. Instead, she told her husband to put the kids to bed so she could get in the car, drive to Wegmans and “panic buy” $100 worth of Rummo pasta.Kelly, a 42-year-old product manager who lives outside Philadelphia, has celiac disease, which means that eating gluten triggers an immune response that leads to digestive issues. She saw fellow gluten-free people on Reddit and TikTok freaking out over the fact that the US is mulling a 107% tariff on Italian pasta imports. According to the Wall Street Journal, the hike could lead to those companies withdrawing from the US market as early as January
Jimi Famurewa’s recipe for puff-puff pancakes
Efteling is a fairytale-themed, 73-year-old amusement park in the south of the Netherlands that, after two consecutive years of visits, has become an acute obsession among my family. We love the vaguely folk-horror animatronic trees, witches and giant sea monsters lurking within a labyrinthine real forest. We love the anthropomorphised talking bins that plead (in a haunting, perpetual sing-song) for crumpled pieces of paper to be shoved into their suction-powered mouths. We love the inventive rides that, variously, judder along rattling wooden tracks, plunge cursed pirate ships into water, or nudge gondolas serenely through sylvan scenes of bum-flashing goblins showering beneath waterfalls.But our very favourite thing about the place might well be the poffertjes stand, a perennially busy kiosk where exhausted families gather for dinky paper boats filled with these yeast-puffed and sugar-dusted miniature buckwheat pancakes that are a Dutch institution
Polpa position: budget tinned tomatoes score well in Choice taste test
Consumer advocacy group Choice has taste-tested 18 brands of chopped and diced tomatoes, finding three cheaper cans outranked many more expensive brands.Four judges ranked tinned tomatoes from Australian supermarkets and retailers, assessing them on flavour, texture, appearance and aroma – with flavour accounting for the biggest percentage of overall scores.Italian brand Mutti’s Polpa Organic chopped tomatoes, costing $2.95 for a 400g tin, was awarded the highest score of 80%. It was the most expensive product tested, described by judge Fiona Mair (who also judges at the Sydney Royal Fine Food Show) as having “an earthy fresh tomato aroma, really rich juice and flesh”
Three plant-based chocolate mousse recipes by Philip Khoury
Mousse au chocolat is one of the most exquisite ways to enjoy chocolate – so here are three recipes that offer it in different textures and levels of chocolate intensity. Each one works beautifully with dark chocolate containing 65-80% cocoa solids. Blends with no specific origin can be further rounded out with one teaspoon of vanilla paste or the seeds from a vanilla bean.Once the mousses have been prepared, they can be frozen and gently defrosted in the refrigerator. Top with chocolate shavings, cocoa nibs or a dusting of unsweetened cocoa powder for texture and contrast
Don’t pour that olive brine down the drain – it’s a flavour bomb | Waste not
When I taste-tested olives for the food filter column a few months ago, it reminded me that the brine is an ingredient in its own right. This intensely savoury liquid adds umami depth to whatever it touches, and, beyond seasoning soups and stews, it can also be used to make salamoia, the aromatic brine that’s traditionally used to top focaccia and create that perfect salty crust.Pouring olive brine down the sink is like washing pure flavour down the drain. Instead, save it to supercharge your focaccia, creating a beautifully flavoured, salted crust that elevates an ordinary loaf into something extraordinary. While I’m partial to rosemary and olives as toppings, this focaccia delivers heaps of flavour even when kept completely plain and simple
Jelly’s back! Here are three worth making – and three that should wobble off to the bin
Jelly has a dowdy reputation, but it may well be the perfect food for the Instagram age: when it works, it’s incredibly photogenic, so who cares what it tastes like?There can be no other explanation for recent claims that savoury jellies – the most lurid and off-putting of dishes, reminiscent of the worst culinary efforts of the 1950s – are suddenly fashionable. This resurgence comes, according to the New York Times, “at a time when chefs are feeling pressure to produce viral visuals and molecular gastronomy is old hat”.The notion that jelly is having a moment is actually a perennial threat: this time last year it was reported that supermarket jelly cube sales were rising sharply, while vintage jelly moulds were experiencing a five-fold increase in online sales. And it was 15 years ago that the high-end “jellymongers” Bompas & Parr – known for their elaborate architectural creations – first published their book on the subject.People who are sceptical about jelly are often put off by its origins
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