MODELS OF FLEXIBLE WORKING

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APPENDIX 3 MODELS OF FLEXIBLE WORKING

APPENDIX 3A: Flexi Scheme

A Flexi Scheme is in place to create greater flexibility in order to support service delivery improvement goals and assist employees in managing their work-life balance and childcare arrangements. However, flexi time does not give an employee an automatic right to take flexi hours. The needs of the service and adequate staffing cover / rota systems must always be considered.

Managers need to monitor closely the hours that their staff are working, arrange sufficient service cover, and ensure that the scheme is managed consistently in order for it to work effectively. Any employee utilising the flexi-scheme will be required to record their working time on the flexitime monitoring form as in appendix 4.

Managers are also responsible for ensuring that their staff take appropriate breaks and are recording times in and out.

If employees do not observe the procedures for the flexi scheme, then use of the scheme can be withdrawn. Any abuse of flexi time or flexi time procedures is a disciplinary offence and may be considered to be gross misconduct.

 Core Hours

Employees may start work between 07:00am and 10:00am.

Morning core time is from 10:00am to 12:00 noon.

Lunch can be taken anytime between 12 noon to 2:00pm.

Afternoon core time is from 2:00pm to 3.00pm.

Employees may leave between 3:00pm and 7:00pm as per line manager agreement.

 Bandwidth

The bandwidth is the earliest time at which a member of staff can attend work and the time by which they must leave. For the purposes of this scheme, bandwidth is deemed to be 7.00am to 7.00pm, other than where this is operationally impractical.

Staff must take a lunch break of a minimum of twenty minutes and a maximum of 2 hours between noon and 2.00pm

 Accounting Period

The accounting period for the flexitime scheme is four weeks. Members of staff will be required to complete a Flexitime Monitoring Sheet (appendix 4) for each accounting period, which must be completed accurately on a daily basis. The Line managers will be responsible for checking the time sheets at the end of each accounting period and verifying any debits and credits and will be responsible for reviewing the hours worked to ensure compliance with Working Time Regulations.

 Carrying over Debits and Credits

At the end of the 4 weeks members of staff will be allowed to carry over credit/debit hours to a maximum of 10 hours, for job-share and part-time employees, this will be pro rata to the hours worked (hours worked divided by standard hours, multiplied by 10).

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Members of staff carrying over a debit will be expected to clear this over the next accounting period, or during a time specified by the manager if there are any special circumstances. In a domestic crisis the manager can authorise a member of staff to go into debit on hours as an alternative to some form of special leave.

Any member of staff who exceeds the credit/debit allowed at the end of an accounting period without their manager’s prior permission may face sanctions without going into formal disciplinary procedures.

Where a member of staff has given notice to leave the organisation, they will be expected to have a nil balance of flexitime prior to the final week of service.

 Flexi Holidays

Provision has been made in the scheme for up to 1.5 days (11 hours) ‘flex holiday’ to be taken in the accounting period. In the case of half days the employee must complete the morning or the afternoon for that day. Flex holidays must be taken with the prior approval of the manager.

 Absences

Where employees are away attending meetings, seminars or training courses at the organisation’s instigation, they should be credited with up to a maximum or 7 hours 30 minutes irrespective of the length of the day or associated travelling time.

If a member of staff is absent from work and this has been authorised e.g. annual leave, sickness or some other authorised absence they will be given a flexi credit for the period of absence equivalent to their usual hours of work. In instances where members of staff work a non-standard working day under flexible working arrangements, flexi credits will be made pro rata to the length of their normal working day for absences such as sickness or annual leave.

 Variations to Flexitime

There are some members of staff for whom the flexitime scheme cannot be made available because of the hours or type of work they do, such as shift workers, operational officers or those workers required to attend work at specific times.

In some circumstances it may not be possible for the full standard flexi time scheme to be operated taking into account the constraints of employees’ working hours or the operational needs of the office.

Variations to the flexitime scheme for such sections and departments may be made in consultation with the manager and HR.

APPENDIX 3B: Part time Working

This ensures that the Trust complies with the Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000 and the Employment Act 2002

There are many different arrangements which can be classified as part-time. Listed below are a number of examples with definitions, but this list is not exhaustive.

 Working fewer hours per day

Under these arrangements an employee would normally work for less than 7.5 hours a day.

This would need to be agreed between the employee and the line manager, at the outset of the agreement.

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 Working fewer days or shifts

Under these arrangements an employee would normally work less than 5 days or 5 shifts, but this would still be a proportion of the shift pattern. This can be set working days or variable.

 Working alternate weeks

This is usually worked as part of a job share arrangement (covered below) but can be operated, depending on the type of post, as a single arrangement.

APPENDIX 3C: Job Share

Job sharing is defined as two people voluntarily sharing the responsibilities and entitlements of one full-time position. The post does not have to be a split 50:50 it can be divided in a number of ways.

Job share is a good opportunity to work part-time where the post requires a full-time commitment.

The emphasis here is upon joint responsibility to ensure a shared full commitment as though a full-time post-holder were in post. If, for any reason, one of the two job sharing employees leaves their post, the remaining job sharer retains that position and shall remain as a part-time employee in that or another post.

APPENDIX 3D: Compressed Hours

Compressed hours (or compressed working weeks) equates to the reallocation of work time into fewer and longer blocks during the week. Generally the number of hours worked during the week will stay the same.

Working time is reorganised so that hours are worked in 4 or 4½ days a week, or 9 days out of a fortnight. This can be accommodated by starting work early and/or finishing late, so that additional hours are built up which can then use to take a half-day or a full day from work.

Example

 Day fortnight: - Employees should work an additional 50 minutes per day for 9 days in a normal 10 day (2 week) period. Calculated by 7.5 hours x 60 minutes = 4 minutes 450 minutes / 9 days = 50 minutes per day.

 A 4 Day week would be a similar scenario to this. 37.5 hours would have to be split over a period of 4 days. 9 hours 30 minutes over 3 days and 9 hours on the 4^th day.

This would enable the employee to have an extra day off per week.

APPENDIX 3E: Term Time Working

Term-time working is related to school patterns and individuals may wish to apply to work during school terms only having the school holidays as unpaid leave for childcare purposes.

APPENDIX 3F: Annualised Hours

An annualised hour’s scheme is an annual total of hours that is agreed, and these are worked in variable quantities over the year by agreement with the line manager.

APPENDIX 3G: Career Breaks

This provides an opportunity for employees of the Trust to take a career break of between 3 months and up to 5 years, and then to return to employment with the Trust. Entry to the career break scheme will normally be open to all staff who have worked for the NHS for a minimum of one

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year. A Career Break will not be deemed as a break in continuous service. Where appropriate a request to return to work part-time, or on a job share basis, should be considered.

APPENDIX 3H: Working From Home

Home working allows an employee for part or most of their working hours to be carried out at home. It involves work being carried out at home, which traditionally has been done in the office. It is suitable for employees in a mobile occupation e.g. one which entails visits to service user homes or site visits, using their own home rather than an office as the base.

Managers will need to ensure that:

 There are clear and measurable outputs.

 The work does not require face to face contact or direct supervision at home

 There are arrangements for effective communication with the work base.

 There are arrangements for authorising, recording and monitoring for time spent working from home.

 Arrangements are in place to protect the confidentiality of information; and health and safety issues are considered, which may involve a full risk assessment.

Managers should take into account all of the factors mentioned above before making a decision.

Requests will be granted on a temporary basis and will be subject to review.

APPENDIX 3I: Voluntary Reduced Hours

Any employee can request a voluntary reduction of their standard working hours. The decision whether or not to agree to this arrangement will be based on:

 The practicality of reducing your hours to the amount requested.

 The length of time involved.

 The impact on service delivery.

When considering this request, managers will need to consider the effects on the service. They will have to be satisfied that the nature of the work allows for a reduction in hours, or that the duties can be carried out by making other arrangements.

APPENDIX 3J: Flexible Retirement

Some employees wish to consider alternatives to simply stopping work as they begin to prepare for retirement. There are 4 broad alternatives to retirement:-

 To wind down into reduced hours in ways that do not reduce accrued NHS Pension Scheme benefits

 To step down into a less demanding and lower paid role in a way that preserves NHS Pension Scheme entitlement already built up

 To retire and start receiving an NHS Pension but to return to part-time or full time work.

This could include working during a specified period (e.g. winter or during annual leave periods) or being available for temporary assignments to help cover staff shortages.

 To retire and start receiving an NHS Pension but to be available for occasional work if required.

The rules regarding the impact of re-employment on NHS pension payments can be complex. Staff considering these options are advised to liaise with the Pensions Manager in Pay Services before making a final decision. The rules of the NHS Pension Scheme take precedence over this policy,

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APPENDIX 3K: Religious / Cultural Needs

The Trust celebrates diversity and encourages people with different religious/cultural events to be accommodated and aims to provide flexibility in working arrangements to enable staff to participate in/adhere to religious events and protocols. This requires some consideration of local arrangements.

Detailed below are practical options to assist staff balance their work and private lives. In the first instance, employees should make arrangements with their Line Manager. However, employees are able to approach HR if there is any difficulty and ultimately the Diversity and Equality Lead.

 Trading Public Holidays: - Change of hours of work or public holidays for a defined period of time to accommodate individuals’ specific religious/personal requirements, e.g. participation in Ramadan.

 Time off for specific events: - Use of Annual leave, lieu time, change of flexi day or taking time to be made up at a later date.

 Changes to working arrangements: - A change of start/finish times for one off tours of duty.

Meal breaks taken at different times.

It is important not to assume that an employee has specific religious/cultural beliefs. Staff should be asked whether or not they have specific requirements. If they have already declared their beliefs, staff can be approached by Line Managers to make arrangements.

Other religious/cultural needs may not involve changing hours of duty, e.g. specific dietary requirements or wearing specific head dress. Any such issue will be discussed positively and the Trust will endeavour to meet the needs identified.

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