Annual leave policy revised for festive period

Following feedback from staff, the Trust’s Annual Leave Policy has recently been reviewed to ensure that all teams have access to a fair booking system. 

Concerns were raised to the executive, that some staff were having to log on at 00:00am on Christmas Day to book annual leave for the following Christmas period as their team was operating on a ‘first come, first serve’ basis.

The review, led by staff side, HR, and operational leads, found that most teams had a process in place which was working well for cover during the festive period. Some operated a points-based system based on previous festive working patterns, some approved leave on a month-by-month basis and others asked for expressions of interest from colleagues willing to work. However, a few areas were working on a ‘first come, first serve' basis. 

Following the policy review, for teams using systems that are fair and working well nothing needs to change. For teams whose systems are causing issues due to fairness, the policy recommends they adopt one of the following two methods to allocate annual leave during the Christmas period. The Trust will, however, no longer adopt a ‘first come first serve’ basis for booking annual leave over the festive period.

1.Points Based System

Managers will review all annual leave requests covering the dates of operation in April/May and staff will be informed by the end of May of that year, subject to annual leave levels being set by the Trust. A points-based system will then be applied to each individual requesting leave; calculating points based on how many of the key festive dates were worked in the previous two years.

2.Priority Grouping system

Managers split the teams into six priority groups. In the first year, staff in priority group 1 choose their annual leave first for that year’s festive period. The next year, priority group 2 members book their annual leave first, and so on, until all 6 groups have had their turn and then it starts again. With this method annual leave requests are not approved until the end of each month.

Each manager will have the option to choose one of the two methods, and once the decision has been taken, they will communicate it to their teams.

If you have any questions about the changes, please speak to your line manager in the first instance.