NHS Flexible Working
NHS flexible working lets any NHS employee ask to change when, where or how many hours they work, using the contractual right in Section 33 of the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook. The right applies from day one, needs no reason, and has no limit on the number of requests in a year — stronger than the statutory position of two requests a year.
This guide covers the patterns NHS staff can request, from part-time and compressed hours to job share, term-time and hybrid working, how to make a request and appeal a refusal, and how a new pattern changes your pay, unsocial hours, pension and annual leave.
What Is NHS Flexible Working?
NHS flexible working is a contractual right under Section 33 of the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook, letting any NHS employee ask for a change to when, where, or how many hours they work from the first day of employment, without having to give a reason, and without any cap on the number of requests in a twelve-month period. The Section 33 right is materially stronger than the statutory baseline, which since 6 April 2024 allows two requests a year under the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023 and only became a day-one right at that point. NHS staff therefore keep an unlimited, no-reason right that pre-dated the statutory day-one position by several years.
Section 33 covers every working pattern that varies from the default rota, including part-time hours, compressed hours, flexi-time, annualised hours, job share, term-time working, and hybrid or remote working. The policy sits alongside Section 2 (pay) and Section 13 (working time) in the Handbook, so any agreed change interacts with pay recalculation, unsocial hours entitlements, and pension contributions. The underlying principle is that service delivery and staff retention are both served when the roster flexes around realistic domestic constraints rather than against them.
What Does Section 33 Give NHS Staff That the Law Does Not?
Section 33 provides three enhancements over the statutory Employment Rights Act 1996 framework (as amended by the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023 and commenced on 6 April 2024). First, requests can be made from day one of NHS employment regardless of qualifying service, matching the day-one position the Act now gives all workers. Second, the number of requests is unlimited within a twelve-month period, whereas the statutory position caps requests at two per year. Third, employees do not have to state a reason or explain how the business might cope, which the statutory position no longer requires either but Section 33 made unnecessary long before.
NHS Employers guidance confirms that trusts must handle every Section 33 request with a central overview to maintain consistency and ensure the eight permitted business reasons for refusal are applied uniformly across departments. The contractual right also means refusal can be challenged under the trust's grievance and appeal procedures rather than only through an employment tribunal, which gives faster recourse than the statutory route alone.
What Types of Flexible Working Can NHS Staff Request?
NHS staff can request any pattern that departs from the standard rota, with the Section 33 framework recognising a core set of named arrangements. The named patterns are listed below:
- Part-Time and Reduced Hours: Fewer contracted hours than a full-time post, usually by dropping days or shortening shifts.
- Compressed Hours: Full-time hours delivered over fewer days, such as four longer shifts instead of five.
- Flexi-Time: Variable start and finish times around a defined set of core hours.
- Annualised Hours: Total hours set as an annual figure, with scheduling adjusted to seasonal peaks and troughs.
- Job Share: One substantive post split between two or more employees who each hold their own contract.
- Term-Time Working: Working during school terms with unpaid or averaged leave through school holidays.
- Hybrid and Remote Working: Splitting the week between an NHS site and home or another approved location.
These named patterns are not exhaustive. Section 33 lets employees propose any variation, including compound patterns that combine two or more of the above.
Part-Time and Reduced Hours
Part-time and reduced hours drop the contracted weekly hours below the full-time baseline (37.5 hours for most NHS staff), with pay, leave, and pension contributions adjusted pro-rata. The arrangement is the most common Section 33 outcome because it supports staff with caring responsibilities, graduated return-to-work plans, and semi-retirement transitions. Managers typically design the new rota around service demand, so reduced hours often come with a shift pattern change rather than simply a shorter version of the previous schedule.
The headline financial consequence is proportional. A nurse moving from 37.5 hours (1.0 whole-time equivalent) to 22.5 hours (0.6 WTE) earns 60% of the full-time annual salary for their band and spine point, under Section 2 of the Handbook. Unsocial hours enhancements track the actual shifts worked rather than the proportion of the week, so a reduced-hours rota that drops weekend shifts loses the 30-60% Section 2 uplifts for those shifts in full.
Compressed Hours
Compressed hours deliver the full contractual week in fewer, longer shifts, keeping gross pay and WTE unchanged while giving the employee one or more clear days away from work. The classic pattern is four 9.375-hour shifts covering 37.5 hours a week. Compressed schedules suit office-based NHS roles with low-shift-dependency more than they suit frontline clinical rotas, where predictable 12-hour patient-contact shifts are already common and compression adds little flexibility.
The core trade-off is fatigue management against calendar freedom. Longer daily shifts need a realistic end-of-day travel plan and a disciplined break structure, particularly for staff with manual handling duties. NHS Employers guidance recommends occupational health input for shifts longer than 10 hours, especially for staff over 50 or with musculoskeletal conditions.
Compressed Hours and Bank Holidays
Bank holidays under compressed hours are credited in hours rather than days, matching the NHS Terms and Conditions treatment of all pro-rata and compressed leave. The entitlement equals the whole-time bank holiday allowance scaled to the employee's actual hours. If a bank holiday falls on a scheduled 9.375-hour shift, the employee only receives the whole-time 7.5-hour credit against that day and has to use annual leave or flexi-time to cover the gap. The arithmetic surprises some new starters, so trusts typically run a worked example in the compressed-hours agreement.
Flexi-Time
Flexi-time sets a daily working window with core hours (usually 10:00-16:00) during which the employee must be on site or available, and bandwidth hours around that window during which attendance is optional. The employee earns the contractual weekly total by working any combination inside the bandwidth. Many trusts allow a settlement period of four weeks, with a carry-over of plus or minus a day's worth of hours between periods.
Flexi-time works best for administrative, finance, HR, and informatics roles where output is measured over the week rather than tied to a patient-contact slot. Clinical teams occasionally adopt modified flexi-time around clinic patterns, but genuine flexibility usually requires the role to be rota-independent. Recording is through electronic timesheets or trust-specific flexi systems, with manager sign-off at the end of each settlement period.
Annualised Hours
Annualised hours convert the weekly contract to a single annual figure, often 1,950 hours for a full-time post (37.5 x 52), and schedule the hours against predictable demand peaks. The arrangement suits roles with seasonal workload (vaccination clinics, winter pressures, elective recovery) and lets the employee concentrate heavier weeks against lighter ones. Monthly pay stays constant across the year even though the hours worked each month vary.
The arrangement needs an agreed set of rules for carrying surpluses or deficits between months, a safety valve for over-work in peak periods, and a reconciliation at the end of the annual cycle. Many trusts cap any carry-over into the next year to avoid an open-ended hours bank. Pension contributions track the smoothed monthly pay rather than the hours actually worked that month, since the pensionable pay is contractual rather than hours-based.
Job Share
Job share splits one substantive post between two (occasionally more) employees, each holding their own contract and each paid pro-rata to their share. A typical split is 0.6 and 0.4 WTE, or two equal halves. Handover arrangements are the critical design question: a job share without protected handover time usually fails within six months because clinical or caseload context is lost between the two halves of the week.
Pay, leave, pension contributions, and unsocial hours are calculated separately for each job share partner based on their own contracted hours and shift pattern. The NHS pension scheme treats each partner as an independent member accruing against their own pensionable pay, so a job share does not merge pension records. Section 33 encourages job share as a route to retaining senior staff who would otherwise leave for part-time posts elsewhere.
Term-Time Working
Term-time working aligns the working weeks with the school year, with the employee off during school holidays. Pay is usually smoothed into equal monthly instalments across the full twelve months so the employee receives consistent income even in non-working weeks, with the annual total scaled to the actual working weeks. The arrangement needs cover arrangements for the holidays, which some trusts solve through pooled teams and others through bank or agency cover.
Annual leave for term-time staff is folded into the non-working periods rather than taken separately, which simplifies the roster but means the holiday periods are not purely free. Pension contributions follow the smoothed monthly pay, with pensionable service credited for the full twelve months of continuous employment despite the non-working weeks. Term-time contracts work well for parents of school-age children and for secondary carers synchronising with partners in education.
Hybrid and Remote Working
Hybrid and remote working split the week between an NHS site and home or another approved location. NHS Employers formally recognises homeworking as a flexible working category under Section 33, with the same request route as other patterns. Hybrid patterns typically specify minimum on-site days per week or per month, with the home days matched to work that genuinely transfers to a remote setting (writing, meetings, analysis, routine administration).
Full remote working is realistic for roles with no physical presence requirement (specialist informatics, some commissioning functions, some senior administrative posts), while hybrid patterns suit most office-based NHS teams. The arrangement has to cover equipment provision, display screen assessment, data security, and lone-worker safety, which trusts usually document in a separate home-working agreement that sits alongside the main Section 33 variation.
How Do You Make a Flexible Working Request in the NHS?
A Section 33 request starts with a written application to the line manager and ends with a formal written decision inside the two-month decision window. The structured path is designed to produce a documented outcome that both sides can review and that satisfies the statutory position in parallel, so no NHS employee needs a tribunal route unless the trust fails to engage with the request. Most trusts publish a request form on their intranet, though a letter or email containing the required information meets the Section 33 standard.
Writing the Request Itself
A valid Section 33 request is in writing, dated, and includes the proposed working pattern, the start date for the new pattern, and (optionally) any practical details that would help the manager assess feasibility. Reasons are not required under Section 33 and are not required under the statutory position since the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023 either. Many trusts offer a standard form that gathers the information in a consistent layout, which usually speeds up the manager's response.
Submitting the request through the trust's human resources portal creates a logged record and starts the two-month clock. A copy forwarded directly to the line manager is good practice because it moves the exploratory meeting arrangement into motion without waiting for the trust's internal routing.
The Exploratory Meeting
The exploratory meeting between the employee and their line manager sits in the middle of the decision window and gives both sides the chance to test the proposal against the realities of the service. The meeting is a genuine discussion rather than a formality, and the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) Code of Practice on handling flexible working requests requires it to be approached reasonably. The employee has the right to be accompanied by a trade union representative or workplace colleague.
The meeting typically covers how the proposed pattern would work in practice, whether any variants might fit the service better, and what rota changes elsewhere would be needed to accommodate it. The manager cannot refuse at the meeting itself without one of the eight statutory business reasons, so even where the proposal faces difficulty the meeting is often where a modified pattern is agreed in principle.
The Two-Month Decision Window
The two-month decision window begins on the date the formal written request is received and ends when the trust communicates its decision in writing. The window is a statutory requirement under the Employment Rights Act 1996 (as amended) and is reflected in Section 33. Within the window, the trust must either accept the request, propose an alternative, or refuse on one of the eight permitted business reasons.
A trust that fails to respond within two months is treated as having accepted the request by default under the statutory position. Most trusts avoid that outcome by communicating a decision in the sixth or seventh week to leave buffer for appeal or clarification. An extension to the two-month window is possible if both sides agree in writing before the original deadline.
How Many Flexible Working Requests Can You Make?
Section 33 places no cap on the number of flexible working requests an NHS employee can make in a twelve-month period, which is the single clearest difference between the contractual and statutory routes. The statutory baseline since 6 April 2024 is two requests per year, up from one before the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023 commenced. NHS staff therefore keep an unlimited right that works alongside, not instead of, the statutory position.
Unlimited requests do not mean the manager must accept every proposal. Each request is still assessed on its merits against the eight permitted business reasons for refusal, and successive requests on the same facts within a short window usually get the same answer. The practical value is that staff can respond to changing domestic circumstances (a new caring responsibility, a partner's job change, a child starting school) without rationing requests across the year.
On What Grounds Can a Flexible Working Request Be Refused?
A Section 33 refusal has to rest on one of eight statutory business reasons, mirroring the Employment Rights Act 1996 list. The trust must show that the business reason applies on the facts of the request and that no reasonable accommodation would resolve the difficulty. A refusal that fails either test can be challenged through the trust's internal appeal and, if necessary, through an employment tribunal under the statutory route.
The Eight Business Reasons
The eight business reasons under the Act are listed below:
- Burden of Additional Costs: The proposed change would incur excessive financial cost that the trust cannot reasonably absorb.
- Detrimental Effect on Ability to Meet Customer Demand: The change would prevent the service from meeting patient demand reliably.
- Inability to Reorganise Work Among Existing Staff: The remaining team cannot absorb the hours or tasks the change would displace.
- Inability to Recruit Additional Staff: No realistic recruitment option exists for backfill, including bank or temporary workers.
- Detrimental Impact on Quality: The pattern would reduce clinical or service quality in a material way.
- Detrimental Impact on Performance: The pattern would hurt team or departmental performance against operational targets.
- Insufficiency of Work During the Periods the Employee Proposes to Work: The hours offered do not match where the service needs cover.
- Planned Structural Changes: An announced restructure would make the arrangement impractical before it could settle.
A refusal letter has to name the specific reason, explain the facts behind it, and set out the appeal route. Generic refusals or refusals that cite a reason without supporting detail are vulnerable on appeal and at tribunal.
Appealing a Refused Request
A Section 33 appeal starts with a written statement from the employee setting out why the refusal is wrong, usually within 14 days of the decision letter. The appeal is heard by a senior manager who was not involved in the original decision, giving a fresh look at the proposal and the business reason cited. The employee can be accompanied by a trade union representative or workplace colleague at the appeal hearing.
Appeal outcomes include upholding the original decision, accepting the request in full, or agreeing a modified arrangement. The appeal has to be completed inside the two-month statutory decision window unless both sides agree in writing to an extension. A failed appeal leaves the grievance procedure and the employment tribunal route open, with tribunal cases having to show that the trust applied the statutory procedure incorrectly rather than reviewing the business reason on its merits.
What Changed for Flexible Working in 2026?
Flexible working rules changed in April 2024 rather than 2026, when the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023 commenced and made the right a day-one right for all workers, with two requests allowed each year and no requirement to justify the business impact in the application itself. The Act also required employers to consult with the employee before refusing and shortened the decision window from three months to two months. Those statutory changes caught up with the position Section 33 already gave NHS staff, so the practical effect inside the NHS was limited.
The 2026 landscape adds no further primary legislation but tightens expectations around "flexible-first" job design. NHS England and NHS Employers continue to promote building flexibility into vacancies at advertisement, so the request route is used less often and the agreed pattern is in place from day one of a new post. The underlying Section 33 rights remain unchanged and continue to exceed the statutory baseline on both frequency and reason-free submission.
How Does Changing Your Pattern Change the Hours You Are Paid For?
Changing the contracted hours changes the pay directly, under Section 2 of the Handbook. A move from full-time (37.5 hours a week) to 0.6 WTE (22.5 hours) sets the gross annual salary at 60% of the full-time rate for the band and spine point. Compressed hours leave the WTE unchanged, so the gross salary stays the same even though the shifts are longer and the week is shorter. Flexi-time and hybrid working do not change the contracted hours and therefore do not change the gross pay figure.
The variation becomes a permanent change to the employment contract once agreed, which means a return to the old pattern needs another Section 33 request or the explicit agreement of both sides. Trial periods are allowed and often sensible, with a review date in the varied contract that acts as a scheduled check-in rather than a renewed negotiation.
Which Parts of Your NHS Pay Recalculate When Your Hours Change?
Several pay components recalculate when the contracted hours change. The components are listed below:
- Basic Pay: Scaled pro-rata to the new WTE, as the direct consequence of the contracted-hours change.
- Unsocial Hours Enhancements: Recalculated against the actual shifts in the new pattern, with Section 2 rates of 30% uplift for weekday nights and Saturdays and 60% for Sundays and public holidays for Bands 4-9 (35% and 69% for Band 3).
- High Cost Area Supplement: Recalculated pro-rata on the new basic pay (20% inner London, 15% outer London, 5% fringe), subject to the band-specific caps.
- Shift and On-Call Allowances: Recalculated against the new rota, usually zero when the new pattern drops the shift or on-call commitment.
- Pension Contributions: Member contribution tier re-set against the new annualised pensionable pay, since the 2026/27 tier bands run from 5.2% to 12.5%.
The combined effect can shift take-home pay by more than the headline WTE change suggests, particularly where unsocial hours or HCAS make up a significant share of the previous income.
How Does Flexible Working Affect Your NHS Pay and Pension?
Flexible working affects basic pay, variable earnings, and pension accrual together, since all three move with contracted hours and shift pattern. The size of the effect depends on which pattern is agreed. The three main effects are explained below.
Pro-Rata Pay on Reduced Hours
Reduced hours scale basic pay pro-rata to the new WTE. A Band 5 nurse at the top of the band earns £39,043 at 1.0 WTE under the 2026/27 Agenda for Change rates, and a move to 0.6 WTE sets gross pay at £23,426. Pension tier contributions recalculate against the lower pensionable pay, which usually drops the member rate by one or two tiers (for example, from 10.7% to 9.8% or 8.3%). The combined take-home effect is close to a straight 40% cut in gross pay, with modest further changes from pension tier and tax band movement.
Unsocial Hours When Your Shifts Change
Unsocial hours enhancements under Section 2 pay 30% uplift for weekday nights (20:00-06:00) and Saturdays, and 60% for Sundays and public holidays, for Bands 4-9 (35% and 69% for Band 3). A flexible pattern that drops weekend or night shifts loses those uplifts in full, which can represent 15-25% of the annual gross pay for a staff nurse on a mixed rota. A pattern that increases unsocial shifts raises overall gross pay even where the contracted hours stay flat.
Reduced Hours and Your Pension
Reduced hours lower both the pensionable pay and the pension contribution tier under the 2026/27 banding (5.2% to 12.5% employee contribution across nine tiers). The 2015 Scheme accrues 1/54 of each year's pensionable pay as retirement income, revalued by CPI plus 1.5% a year, so reduced hours reduce accrual proportionally. Members approaching retirement who want to protect accrual can purchase additional pension through the NHS Pensions scheme or use partial retirement to draw down 20-100% of accrued benefits while continuing to work and accrue, which has been available to 1995 and 2008 Section members since October 2023.
How Does Flexible Working Affect Annual Leave?
Annual leave under Section 13 of the Handbook recalculates pro-rata when contracted hours change, with the entitlement expressed in hours rather than days to keep the arithmetic clean across all working patterns. A new starter on 1.0 WTE accrues 27 days plus eight public holidays, which translates to 262.5 hours a year at 7.5 hours per day. The entitlement grows to 29 days after five years' service and 33 days after ten years' service, with the same pro-rata treatment.
A move to 0.6 WTE sets the annual leave at 157.5 hours (60% of 262.5). Public holidays falling on days the employee would normally work count as annual leave used, so the net benefit of a public holiday scales with the working pattern. The hours-based arithmetic avoids the awkward edge cases that arise when leave is tracked in days against patterns with different daily hours.
Compressed Hours and Bank Holidays
Compressed hours keep the annual leave figure at the full-time 262.5 hours but credit bank holidays in hours rather than days. A bank holiday falling on a scheduled 9.375-hour shift pays only the whole-time 7.5-hour credit against that day, leaving a 1.875-hour gap the employee covers from annual leave, flexi-time, or an agreed make-up shift. Trusts usually explain the arithmetic through a worked example at the point the compressed hours agreement is signed to avoid first-year surprises.
Can You Work Flexibly and Still Progress in the NHS?
Flexible working does not block career progression in the NHS, and NHS Employers guidance explicitly protects the development, promotion, and training opportunities of staff on Section 33 arrangements. Appraisals continue on the normal cycle, personal development plans run on the same basis, and promotion applications are judged on the same criteria as full-time colleagues. The practical consideration is that some leadership posts carry an operational on-site expectation that limits full remote working, though those posts increasingly accept hybrid patterns.
Taking a long reduced-hours period has a small compounding effect on career progression where seniority is tied to time served in post rather than years of employment, since the time-to-threshold for the next spine point extends with the reduced hours. The NHS Pension Scheme's partial retirement option and the growing use of flexible-first job design mean that stepping down hours no longer forces a step out of the career track.
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