The trust recognises the need for its employees to be able to achieve a work-life balance and is committed to developing and maintaining working arrangements to enable them to do this.
Our over-riding priority is employee wellbeing, and our preference is that all employees take their full allocation of annual leave each year. However, given the current exceptional circumstances being faced following the emergence and rapid spread of the Omicron variant, we will allow employees to request to carry over (beyond the levels already permitted within our annual leave guidance) and/or sell some of their annual leave allowance, for the 2021/2022 annual leave year only.
As in previous years there is also the opportunity to request to purchase up to an additional 10 days’ annual leave (pro-rata for part-time employees) for the forthcoming 2022/23 year if they wish to.
- Line Managers will consider all requests to carry over (beyond the levels already permitted within our annual leave guidance, sell and purchase annual leave. All requests made through this temporary change must consider primarily an individual’s personal wellbeing as well as how the capacity created by reduced levels of annual leave being taken in the 2021/2022 leave year or additional annual leave purchased for the 2022/2023 will contribute to service levels and business continuity.
- For the selling of annual leave and/or carry over relating to 2021/2022 the criteria that need to be satisfied are either;
- The applicant works in a service directly impacted by additional pressures created by the Omicron variant and the additional capacity will ensure services are maintained at required levels, or;
- The applicant does not work in a service directly impacted by the additional pressures and they will use their additional time supporting those services under the most pressure. These areas are primarily operational, although there are also some directly impacted corporate areas. This will be managed locally, usually through Line Managers.
This temporary change to the annual leave guidance is in line with the Staff Council Statement from December 2021. Carried over annual leave must be used by 31st March 2023.
For any queries related to this policy please contact the Systems & Information Team on DCHST.ESR@nhs.net