Absence from work policy and annual leave procedure

Last Updated on 25/01/2024

Absence reporting email address: lscft-absence-recording@lancaster.ac.uk
(this inbox is managed by a small duty team of clinical tutors who check the inbox at the start and end of the working day)
Annual leave email address: annualleave-nhs@lancaster.ac.uk

Reasons for absence

Absence is recorded in the following four categories:

Annual leave
Sickness absence
Family leave – such as carer/compassionate leave and parental leave
Special leave – such as time off for public and civil duties

Attendance at teaching

Trainees are full-time employees and are expected to act as adult learners. As such they are expected to attend almost all teaching, and must never be absent from teaching without taking leave. As the DClinPsy programme includes teaching that spans most of the year, trainees will occasionally need to book annual leave on a teaching day as part of a longer period of leave. There is a cap on the maximum amount of annual leave on teaching days that trainees are permitted to take. The maximum number of days bookable are as follows:

Annual leave on teaching days allowance table:

Time period – full time trainees	Maximum amount of annual leave that can be taken from teaching	Details	Notes
1^st Sept – 31^st March (year 1 trainees)	FT 4 days	1 day per week after induction	No teaching in Wellbeing week or Christmas break
1^st April – 31^st March (year 1-2)	FT 6 days	1 day per week
1st April – 31st March (year 2-3)	FT 6 days	1 day per week
1^st April – 31^st August (FT final year trainees)	FT 2 days	Teaching one day per week April and May, once per fortnight until July	Little teaching scheduled in Aug in final year
TOTAL THAT CAN BE MISSED	18 days

Time period – part time trainees	Maximum amount of annual leave that can be taken from teaching	Details	Notes
1^st Sept – 31^st March (year 1)	PT 4 days	1 day per week after induction	No teaching in Wellbeing week or Christmas break
1st April – 31st March (year 1-2)	PT 6 days	Same teaching load as FT trainees (1 day / week)
1st April – 31st March (year 2-3)	PT 6 days	Same teaching load as FT trainees (1 day / week)
1^st April – 31^st March (year 3-4)	PT 2days	Teaching one day per week April and May, once per fortnight until July. Sept – March only in for occasional teaching
1^st April – 31^st December (PT final year trainees)	PT 1 day	Only in for occasional teaching
TOTAL THAT CAN BE MISSED	19 days

Special leave, i.e. emergency/domestic leave; carer leave, and compassionate leave, is not included in this allowance due to the often-urgent nature of these requests. To request a teaching day as annual leave, trainees need to follow Annual Leave procedure. It is not expected that trainees will book a teaching day as annual leave in isolation (i.e. the only day of annual leave in a week). In exceptional circumstances this may be necessary and must be requested from and approved by the Clinical Director. For the purposes of the above, teaching days are considered those sessions in the timetable that are linked to one or more teaching strands. Community engagement project, NHS induction, project block, and selections training days are not counted as teaching days.

In exceptional circumstances, trainees may sometimes be permitted to miss teaching to attend a research ethics committee or a CPD conference. No more than two teaching days can be missed each year for such reasons. In these circumstances, approval to miss teaching will be given by the Clinical Director. Trainees are not permitted to miss teaching for routine placement or research activity.

To avoid poor attendance at teaching sessions the number of trainees permitted to take Annual Leave is restricted. Cohort 2019 and earlier – 5 trainees, Cohort 2020 – 6 trainees and cohort 2021 onwards – 8 trainees per session. Trainees will be allowed to book leave on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. It is therefore important for trainees to apply for leave they wish to take on teaching days as early as possible. In certain circumstances, such as when there is a CPD event scheduled for a teaching day and more than that cohort’s allowance of trainees are interested in attending, teaching may be rescheduled to allow attendance at the event.

It is the trainee’s responsibility to check the teaching timetable when it is published to identify any days which may be problematic with regards to caring responsibilities.

If any teaching days are identified as likely to be problematic to attend, trainees are asked to raise and discuss with their clinical tutors as soon as possible and in advance of the day(s) as to how to best manage them. Options available are as follows:

Taking annual leave – Full and Part time trainees can book Annual Leave in half days. Full time trainees are recorded in days, and Part time people are given their allowance in hours. However individual hours are not accepted in a request. Half days (3.75 hrs) are the minimum request possible.
Making a request to leave teaching early for a proportionate and reasonable amount of time (for example leaving teaching in time to meet the usual nursery pick up if on a 7.5 hour placement day). This needs to be explicitly agreed in advance with the clinical tutor

It is important that any request is made in advance and explicitly agreed before the teaching day (this is not applicable to typical teaching days). The trainee is responsible for organising any agreements. If a trainee is absent without an agreement being in place then the trainee could be considered to be in breach of their contract as technically they are working for less hours than they are being paid for.

Please note that if unable to attend teaching because of transport issues, the trainee must take the day as annual leave. It is not permissible to leave early or arrive late to teaching for reasons of transport convenience.

It is also important to note that even on teaching days trainees’ salaried work activity begins at 9.00am. Teaching times are flexible therefore trainees are expected to arrive and be ready for start times from 9am onwards. If meetings are requested by tutors between 9-10am on a teaching day, it is expected that trainees will attend. Persistent lateness on teaching days will lead to a concern form being submitted. Where teaching is being provided remotely, i.e. via Microsoft Teams or equivalent, the teaching day will normally start at 9.30am to allow for sufficient breaks throughout the day.

A few teaching sessions are mandatory, and annual leave may not be taken on days when these sessions are scheduled. These are:

Teaching sessions which enable trainees to meet the mandatory training requirements of their NHS employer, and
Sessions which include required elements that trainees must participate in in order to complete the programme

Such sessions are clearly marked on the teaching timetables. If a trainee misses mandatory teaching due to illness, they will be required upon returning to work to provide a doctor’s note covering the date the session took place, regardless of the length of the sickness absence. They will then be required to take part in the activity missed at a later date.

If a trainee needs to leave teaching (or placement) early because of an urgent need (e.g. child becomes ill) then trainees can request carers leave at short notice. This needs to be made via the absence inbox.

Mandatory attendance at anti-racism and inclusive practice teaching

In line with the programme’s ethos and values, we believe that as individuals and a community of professionals we have a responsibility to be open to learning and development; this is particularly pertinent to issues of racism, discrimination and inclusion. We are all at different stages of our learning and development in relation to these important areas, however it is essential we all engage in opportunities to learn from others and challenge ourselves. To this end, attendance at all teaching on anti-racism and inclusive practice on the Lancaster DClinPsy is mandatory. These sessions will be highlighted as such on teaching timetables. If you think there is a reason why you cannot attend any of these sessions, it will need to be discussed with your clinical tutor. For trainees who experience racism we understand that there may be very valid reasons as to why you do not want to attend teaching on racism or other topics of discrimination. We would encourage you to discuss with your clinical tutor or a staff member of the ARAG, if that feels more appropriate, although there is no expectation to do so. If you are a trainee who experiences racism and do not feel able to attend a session on this topic, your clinical tutor will be able to authorise a study day. You do not need to book annual leave for this reason.

Study days

For full time trainees, one day each week is designated as study leave. For part time trainees on 0.7wte, half a day is designated each week to study. Study days are still working days, and as such trainees should be contactable and may be asked to meet with programme staff if necessary. To request a study day as annual leave, trainees need follow standard Annual Leave Procedure. Please note that study days cannot be taken in lieu.

Taking annual leave

How to apply for Annual Leave

1. Subject of email must include AL [Cohort] [Name of requestor] e.g. AL 2021 Jones
2. The trainee must stipulate what type of day it is on each date, Placement (PD), Study (SD) or teaching (TD). This is an example how a week of AL request should look: –
  3/9/21 – SD
  4/9/21 – PD
  5/9/21 – PD
  6/9/21 – TD
  7/9/21 – PD
3. The Trainee emails their supervisor and research tutors to ask for agreement on AL dates
4. Replies to be actioned within 1 week of initial email. If no response is received, the trainee can chase for a reply.
5. The Trainee receives agreement from supervisor and Research tutor, forwards email trail to Clinical tutor for their authorisation.
6. Clinical tutor replies within a week with authorisation or raises concerns. . If no response comes from tutor, the trainee can chase for a reply. If Trainee receives and out of office before AL date request then forwards request to the Clinical Director.
7. Trainee receives authorisation from Clinical tutor and forwards email trail, with tutor approved emails, to AL inbox.
8. Administration checks details, raises any concerns at the point, and proceeds to record dates.
9. Trainee receives a confirmation email from AL that the request has been successful. This would be usually within 1 week however in peak times/holiday cover it may be longer.

Reclaiming leave lost due to sickness absence

Please follow the absence reporting processes set out in the relevant section below. You will also need to provide a GP fit note for the time period you wish to reclaim the annual leave for – self certification cannot be accepted for this purpose.

Carry over leave

The employing Trust normally expects that the full annual leave entitlement is taken within each year (financial year, April – March) and that no days are carried over. Only in exceptional circumstances and with the approval of the Associate Director for Psychological Professions can annual leave be carried over into the next year. Requests to carry over leave are made by in the month of February through Annual Leave email. Trainees will be asked to submit the Carry over form, stating the number of days/hours they wish to carry over. The exceptional reasons for this request will be included on this form. A maximum of 5 days basic contracted hours may be carried over to the following year for Full timers, with Part time trainees being able to request their pro rota equivalent. Any leave that is to be carried over, must be requested by the employee, in the annual leave year in which it has accrued, and must be taken before the end of June in the new leave year. As trainees start employment on September 1st, they have 7 / 12 worth of leave to take by the end of March. There are, within the annual plan, some weeks with no teaching within each year (e.g. in December/Jan and around Easter and August) and the course anticipates that such weeks will help trainees take leave without compromising their studies.

Email leave requests to: annualleave-nhs@lancaster.ac.uk

Please be aware of the following when submitting your leave requests to this inbox:

Leave cannot be taken unless it is approved by the programme regardless of whether it has been approved by your supervisor/tutor
Requests will not be processed if the subject header does not contain correct details that include your Cohort and name.

Making a late request i.e. within 3 weeks of AL dates.

Trainee sends an email to the absence inbox lscft-absence-recording@lancaster.ac.uk to gain approval. The following information MUST be provided in order to process the request:
- Date(s) being requested
- Scheduled activities on date(s) requested i.e. teaching (please state if mandatory), placement, study
- Reason for short notice leave request
- Cohort year
- Cc in Clinical Tutor, Research Tutor & Placement Supervisor
The absence duty team will process your request and let you know whether your short notice leave request has been approved. Please be aware that approval is subject to any issues raised by the tutor pair and/or placement supervisor. If any issues are raised the approval will be revisited and could in some circumstances be withdrawn.

Please be aware that the absence inbox is processed at the start of the working day and towards the end of the working day only. To ensure a speedy response, please send any short notice leave requests by 9.30am where possible.

Length of Service

It is the trainees responsibility to update the programme, though the AL email, when they gave reached 5 /10 yrs of service. The increase in AL allowance will commence the following AL year in April.

Bank Holidays

Full time and part time trainees have every Bank Holiday off and these are booked off automatically at the start of every AL year. Part time trainees are given their BH holiday in conjunction with their contracted hours, eg 0.7 contract is given 0.7 of the 7.5 hours of a BH allowance per BH If a BH is a non working day for the trainee then they will not have AL used to cover the day off. If it is a working day then 7.5hrs will be used to give the trainee the full BH off. Trainees can not change their working pattern for a single week to use the BH as a day off. It is the trainees responsibility to inform AL of their working pattern at the start of each AL to allow for their AL allowance to be calculated. Any changes to their working pattern must be given to AL via email as they could affect their overall AL allowance.

Medical/Non-Medical Absences

As employees of Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust (LSCFT), all trainees are required to provide information about any time away from work activities during the working day (this includes teaching and study days). If you find yourself needing to be away from active engagement with the scheduled work activity for longer than 30 minutes then please contact lscft-absence-recording@lancaster.ac.uk to let us know. Your contact will be processed either at the start or the end of the working day when the duty person checks the inbox. Reasons can include a medical appointment/ self care/feeling poorly towards the end of a day/ needing to attend to an urgent domestic issue etc. Please provide a reason for your time away from work – however if you feel unable to share the reason with the duty absence team– state this in your email and your clinical tutor will be asked to follow this up with you.

Time away from work which exceeds two hours will be recorded as a sickness absence episode or special leave depending on the circumstance.

Pre-planned medical appointments – please contact lscft-absence-recording@lancaster.ac.uk as soon as you know the date and time so this can be logged. If this changes – please remember to let us know so we can log your new appointment time. If relevant you can ask for the appointment to be recorded as ‘disability related absence’ if part of a recognised condition.

Special leave

Special leave requests need to be made via lscft-absence-recording@lancaster.ac.uk. Please state the kind of special leave you are seeking and a reason. If you do not feel able to share your reason – please state this in your email and your clinical tutor will be asked to follow this up with you or the Clinical Director or their Deputy will be asked to follow up if your clinical tutor is on a non-working day. Please be aware that this may lead to a delay in being able to process your request. The absence duty team have delegated responsibility to process special leave requests not exceeding five days in a 12month rolling time period. Any requests which exceed this have to be approved by the Clinical Director or their Deputy which the duty team will seek on the trainees behalf.

Special leave is designed to be a compassionate, supportive and immediate response to an unexpected situation arising in an employees life. It can include the following (for the full list see the LSCFT staff leave policy at the bottom of this page)

Carers leave – where there are unexpected breaks in care for someone you have caring responsibilities for to enable you to make arrangements for ongoing care as needed.
Emergency leave – where an incident in your domestic life needs your urgent attention (burst pipe/break in/car breakdown/accident)
Compassionate leave – where there is an unexpected event with a loved one; funeral of a family member/close friend

Leave to attend interviews

Trainees may attend interviews for NHS posts in work time (including teaching, placement and study) but must inform lscft-absence-recording@lancaster.ac.uk special leave. For non-NHS posts trainees must take annual leave to attend (this includes on study days).

Absence reporting procedures – Trust requirements

Any absences or time away from work over 30 minutes need to be reported to lscft-absence-recording@lancaster.ac.uk so it can be logged appropriately. Exceptions to this are approved annual leave days and any other approved leave arrangements (e.g paternity or maternity leave).

Absences or time away from work up to two hours are logged with the reason given by the trainee (e.g. medical appointment/self care reasons/ sickness episode towards end of the day). Absences or time away from work longer than two hours require formal logging as either a full sickness absence episode or special leave depending on the circumstance.

Disability Related Absence (for a pre-planned appointment related to a recognised condition) or Disability Related Sickness Absence (for a sickness episode or need to have time away from work due to a recognised condition) can be given as the reason and will be logged as such.

Procedure

Please contact lscft-absence-recording@lancaster.ac.uk by 9.30am to report an absence. If you become unwell during the day – please remember to contact lscft-absence-recording@lancaster.ac.uk. Your email will be processed at the end of the day when the duty person makes their final check on the absence inbox.

When contacting the absence inbox to report an absence please provide the following information:

Reason for absence – please include details of symptoms e.g. sickness bug, cold, flu, covid positive, stress, MH related etc. If you do not want to disclose the details of your absence to the duty team due to the sensitive nature of it – please let the duty team know this and who is aware of the details i.e. clinical tutor/clinical director.
Confirmation that you have contacted your placement supervisor and cancelled any appointments you have with university based staff, or other appointments you have with other people.

A contact telephone number for you in case we need to follow up/check anything with you
Your cohort year e.g. 2021

Closing a sickness absence episode

When you are feeling well enough to return to work please contact lscft-absence-recording@lancaster.ac.uk to say you are back in work. Please do this by 9.30am on the morning of your return. Failure to do this means we cannot close your absence episode and may result in a reduction in pay if the absence is left open.

Please complete a self-certification form (at the bottom of this page) for the first seven calendar days of an absence period and attach to your return to work email.

If you are off for longer than seven days you will also need to submit a GP fit note to cover the time period you are off. Please note you need to do this prospectively not retrospectively (i.e. at the start of the extended absence period and not at the end). If you are having problems getting a fit note from your GP please keep the absence inbox informed of when you expect to receive the fit note. Once received send to lscft-absence-recording@lancaster.ac.uk so it can be logged.

When you have returned to work your clinical tutor will be asked to complete a ‘back to work interview’ with you (if your tutor is not available then the Clinical Director or their nominated deputy will undertake the return to work interview with you). This is an opportunity to check in and see how you are doing following your return. It is also an opportunity to consider any adjustments to your work schedule as you return to ease you back into work if needed and/or whether it might be helpful to explore additional supports such as a referral to Occupational Health or to make you aware of any relevant support services offered by the trust.

Reclaiming annual leave lost to sickness absence

Please follow the absence reporting processes set out above. You will need to provide a GP fit note for the time period you wish to reclaim the annual leave for – self-certification cannot be accepted for this purpose. Neither can a retrospective application. Absence must reported in a timely manner as per the process set out above.

COVID-19

There is no longer a stipulation that you have to test if you have symptoms of covid. However if you do have symptoms of covid you are asked to stay away from work for at least five days. Day one is classed as the first day you experienced symptoms and/or had a positive covid test. If at day 5 you are symptom free (even if you are still returning a positive covid test) you can return to face to face work the following day on day 6.

If you would like more information on this – please see the LSCFT SOP below.

Attendance management

LSCFT operate an active attendance management approach to support colleagues when they are experiencing a series of episodes of absence. More details can be found in the LSCFT policy at the bottom of this page. The duty team will alert your clinical tutor if the number or length of your absences in a 12 month rolling period means the attendance management support processes need to be put into place or equally when you can be stepped down from them.