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Changes to flexible working procedure

September 27, 2021

As you may be aware, Section 33 of the NHS Terms & Conditions Handbook changed to reflect a change in approach to flexible working.  This reflects the commitment in the NHS People Plan to support our colleagues to achieve a healthy work-life balance, to aid staff retention as well as attracting new and diverse talent to the organisation.  Research shows that there is an increasing demand for flexible working from colleagues across all age ranges and genders. Some of the advantages of flexible working are below:

Employees Employers
Improved job satisfaction Widens talent pool for recruitment and addresses skill shortages
Higher level of engagement Widened participation and improved diversity of workforce
Improved health & wellbeing Reduced cost where full time cover not required and reduced agency costs
A better work-life balance Engaged and committed employees
Support to manage carer responsibilities Reduced sickness absence
Increased sense of autonomy & control Narrowing gender pay gap
Sense of belonging Improved recruitment and retention –employer of choice

We are in the process of working with our staff side representative to develop a revised flexible working policy to reflect the change in ethos and process within the NHS.

As atemporary measure, we have developed an Interim Flexible Working Procedure to reflect the key changes, which will act as an addendum to the existing Flexible Working Policy HR 033 to ensure managers and staff are aware of the key elements of the new process.

The key changes include:

  • A stronger focus on creatively exploring ways to support flexible working wherever possible, whilst still supporting high quality, effective service delivery.
  • The right for all employees to request flexible working from the first day of their employment regardless of the reason for the request, or the role/band or grade/area the individual is employed in.
  • No limit on the number of flexible working requests that can be made in a 12 month period.
  • A focus on normalising flexible working conversations through regular and informal discussions at induction, PDR, 1:1s and team meetings. The purpose of this is to explore the individual’s needs and wishes and what options might be available to help employees think about whether they want to make a request.
  • All flexible working requests will now be made via ESR Self Service and the paper application form will be discontinued. (User guidance is available on Connect as follows: For Employee Self Service: https://connect2.swbh.nhs.uk/esr/employee-self-service/ For Manager Self Service use:  https://connect2.swbh.nhs.uk/esr/esr-service-guides/  (under Personal and Assignment Information)).
  • A new formal procedure which includes the following stages:
    • Stage 1 – Initial Exploratory Stage: The employee and manager meet to work through what the employee wants to achieve and to identify, evaluate (and agree where possible) options for achieving it.
    • Stage 2 – Escalation Stage: Where the line manager has not been able to accommodate the request within the immediate team after full consideration of alternative options, they will escalate to the Group Director of Operations (or equivalent) who will nominate an appropriate senior manager to review other options, including consideration of whether the request can be accommodated outside of the immediate team.
    • Stage 3: Decision stage – The decision is confirmed in writing.
    • Stage 4: Appeal – There is an appeal stage within the procedure.
  • There is a heightened expectation around the central monitoring of and reporting on flexible working requests.

There will also be some supporting resources for managers developed in due course.

If you have any questions about the interim procedure, please contact the HR department on ext. 6680.

For employees that need assistance with using ESR to make a flexible working request please liaise with your line manager in the first instance. You can also email the ESR Helpdesk via swbh.esrhelpdesk@nhs.net .

Further training materials on the use of ESR to make flexible working requests are in development and will be available in due course.

For more information please see Interim Flexible Working Procedure.