Holidays and other leave policy and procedure
Introduction
Lancashire County Council recognises that taking time off from work is important for your wellbeing and helps you stay refreshed and productive. Our aim is to provide flexibility while maintaining service delivery and this policy explains how annual leave works, including how much leave you get, how to book it, and what happens with bank holidays and carry-over leave.
We want to make sure everyone can take their leave fairly while keeping services running smoothly. All employees are encouraged to plan their leave in advance and work collaboratively with their manager to ensure operational needs are met.
You may also choose to undertake positions of responsibility that may require time away from work, such as school governors or armed forces reservists and this policy explains how that time is managed. There are separate guides available regarding time off work for dependents; sabbaticals; trade union activity; bereavements and policies relating to family friendly and carer's leave.
Scope
This policy applies to all employees on LCC terms and conditions, excluding teaching and non-teaching staff employed by schools; employees who transferred to the council in accordance with TUPE regulations and who remain on their previous terms and conditions of employment.
It does not apply to agency workers, contractors, consultants or any self-employed individuals working for the organisation.
Responsibilities
You will:
Plan ahead, booking your leave in advance to help your manager and team manage workloads.
Communicate with your team about when you may require leave, for example school holidays or religious festivals to enable effective planning.
Follow the process, submitting your leave requests through Oracle Fusion and waiting for approval before making plans.
Check your balance, making sure you have enough leave before requesting time off.
Work with your manager to agree dates that fit both your needs and the service requirements.
Communicate changes and tell your manager promptly if your plans change.
Managers will:
Work with their team to balance leave requests with service needs.
Consider operational requirements and explain reasons if a request cannot be approved; approving or declining requests promptly.
Monitor leave balances and ensure employees take their entitlement within the leave year.
Support employees in taking regular breaks and using their leave entitlement.
Ensure fairness by applying this policy consistently.
People Services will:
Provide support and guidance to managers on the implementation and application of this policy.
Regularly review and update this policy.
Your leave entitlement
The holiday year runs from 1st April and ends on 31st March the following year.
Unless your contract provides otherwise, you are entitled to 26 days paid holiday per holiday year or a pro rata equivalent if you work part-time.
Your entitlement will rise to 32 days (pro rata for part-time employees) on the anniversary of your fifth year of Local Government continuous service.
Starting or leaving during the holiday year
If your employment starts or terminates part way through the holiday year, your holiday entitlement during that year will be calculated on a pro rata basis.
If you leave the council you will be expected to use your remaining annual leave entitlement during your notice period prior to leaving.
If, on the termination date, you have taken more holiday than your accrued entitlement, the corresponding amount will be deducted from your final salary payment.
If you are unable to take your leave prior to leaving the council due to the needs of the service, you will be paid in lieu for the accrued leave.
Calculating your leave entitlement
Your entitlement will be based on the number of completed month's service during the year and part months' service, during the year.
Oracle Fusion calculates your annual leave entitlement. Your entitlement will be automatically updated throughout the year to account for any changes in hours or if you leave the council.
Please note that in Oracle Fusion all leave is calculated in hours, for example 26 days leave at 7.4 hours per day would be displayed as 192.4 hours or 32 days leave at 7.4 hours per day would be displayed as 236.8 hours.
20 years' service
If you achieve 20 years' service with LCC you will gain one extra day's leave. You will need to take this within 12 months of the date on which you achieve 20 years' service. This additional leave applies for one year only, is pro rata for part-time employees and is not recorded on Oracle Fusion – you should agree with your manager when you will take it.
Bank holidays and extra statutory days
You are entitled to a holiday with a normal day’s pay for each of the statutory, general and public holidays as they occur.
The eight statutory public holidays are:
Christmas Day
Boxing Day
New Years Day
Good Friday
Easter Monday
Early May Bank
Spring Bank
Summer Bank
Employees shall have an entitlement to two extra statutory days holiday which are taken on designated days over the Christmas/New Year period.
Full-time employees are entitled to all statutory bank holidays and any extra statutory days. If you work less than five days per week, either on compressed hours or less than 37 hours per week you are entitled to a pro rata amount of bank holidays and extra statutory days.
To understand how to record pro rata entitlements or to make a claim for working on a bank holiday or extra statutory day refer to the bank holiday entitlement guide.
Taking holiday
You may take annual leave at times that suit your personal needs, provided your request is submitted in advance and approved by your manager. Approval will depend on service requirements, ensuring adequate staffing levels and fair allocation of leave across the team.
Many employees may require leave at the same time, for example to cover school holidays or religious festivals and you are encouraged to be open about your requirements to ensure a fair and consistent approach is taken to time off from work. You should avoid making commitments, such as booking holidays, until your leave has been formally approved.
School support services staff
Your manager will inform you if you are required to take your annual leave during school holidays. You may also be able to claim payment for days when the school is closed during the term owing to exceptional circumstances such as, an election, visits, emergencies or the like, at full rate.
Term time only employees
If you are a term time only employee, you will receive an allowance for your annual leave entitlement, bank holidays and extra statutory days which is added to your salary and paid in 12 equal payments over the year.
When your employment ends we will calculate whether you have been correctly paid based on the hours you have worked and any adjustment will be made to your final salary.
Booking annual leave
Banking annual leave
You can bank leave up to the equivalent of one of your normal working weeks per leave year, up to a total of four weeks leave. For example, if you normally work a four-day week you can bank four days leave per year, or if you work a 27-hour week you can bank 27 hours per year.
Banked annual leave can be taken in the current leave year or in future leave years.
You must take any leave, over the four-week limit, within the following leave year or you will lose it.
If you are planning an extended period of absence from work to use the banked leave you must give your manager as much notice as possible, over and above the usual notice period, to ensure that the service can accommodate your absence.
Banking more than one week
Heads of Service may allow you to bank further leave in special cases only.
Special cases are exceptional circumstances where you have been unable to take your leave. Any requests to bank leave in excess of one week in a leave year will be considered on a case-by-case basis and, if agreed, the additional leave must be used as early as possible in the new leave year.
Moving or leaving jobs
If you move jobs within the council you take your banked leave with you to your new job.
If you are leaving the council, then you must take any banked annual leave before leaving.
We may pay you in lieu of untaken banked annual leave, if circumstances prevent you from taking it, for example dismissal from employment.
Purchasing additional annual leave
If you require additional annual leave, for example to cover childcare, you may be able to buy up to four extra weeks (pro rata for part-time employees) to be used in the same leave year. You can find more information in the Purchasing Additional Leave Scheme.
Holiday pay
Annual leave and sickness
You will continue to accrue annual leave during periods of sickness absence.
You are encouraged to use annual leave while you are absent due to sickness, as you would if you were in work.
If you are prevented from taking annual leave while absent because of the nature of your illness / condition, you may be able to take the leave at another time upon your return to work.
Please be aware that if you are absent due to sickness at the end of the annual leave year and you have more than the statutory annual leave limit remaining (i.e. 20 days for full-time employees who work five days per week, or the pro rata equivalent for employees who work part-time), you will lose the difference. For example, if you work full time hours and have 28 days' annual leave remaining, you will be able to carry over 20 days' leave into the new leave year, but you will lose the remaining 8 days.
If you are unwell and unable to attend work it should not be recorded as annual leave and your manager may refuse your request.
Pre-arranged annual leave
If you are prevented from taking pre-arranged annual leave due to illness, or you fall ill during a period of annual leave, your manager may approve a request to treat some (or all) of the period of annual leave as sickness absence.
If you have pre-arranged leave and you use the leave for the purpose it was intended, for example to go on holiday or to visit family, the time must remain recorded as annual leave on Oracle Fusion.
For further information you should refer to the Attendance policy and procedure.
Holiday entitlement and family leave
You will continue to accrue your holiday entitlement during any period of family leave (i.e. maternity, paternity, neonatal, adoption, shared parental leave, unpaid parental leave and parental bereavement leave).
You should make every effort to take any outstanding holiday entitlement before commencing family leave or immediately after your family leave has ended and should correctly record it on Oracle Fusion
Any holiday entitlement that has not been taken because of a period of family leave may be carried over into the next holiday year.
Special leave – paid and unpaid
Special leave provides employees with paid time off to deal with situations that are usually urgent, unforeseen or of an emergency nature. Up to a maximum of six days’ special leave with pay may be granted in any one leave year, which is pro rata for part-time employees.
Unpaid special leave may also be approved, allowing employees to take up to three months’ unpaid leave in any one leave year to deal with a wider range of circumstances.
In addition, employees may take a reasonable amount of unpaid time off during working hours to care for or provide assistance to a dependant.
You should refer to the Special Leave guide for full details.
Other leave provision
Parliamentary election
If you are adopted as a candidate in a parliamentary election you may take four weeks leave of absence, three with pay and one without, to enable you to conduct the electioneering campaign. You are elected to Parliament you must resign your employment with the council.
If you act as an official agent in a parliamentary election you may take three weeks leave of absence without pay to enable you to assist in the conducting of the electioneering campaign.
Armed Forces Reservists
If you are a reservist (i.e. member of the non-regular armed forces) you may be eligible for 10 days' paid leave to enable you to attend the required Annual Deployment Exercise (ADE) or similar course in lieu of attending an ADE. You should request this leave through Oracle Fusion and provide your manager with appropriate evidence, which may be a letter from your Commanding Officer. If your manager is able to accommodate the request it will be approved, however we may decline the request.
If you require additional leave for training purposes outside of working hours you may apply for unpaid leave. Alternatively, if you are eligible you may purchase additional leave under the Purchase Additional Leave Scheme for this purpose.
If you are called up for military operations you must provide your manager with appropriate evidence, for example your mobilisation letter and we will also receive confirmation from the Ministry of Defence. The period of leave will be unpaid. We will re-instate you in your former job within six months of demobilisation if you write to your manager within 13 weeks of your demobilisation confirming your intention to return to work.
Election duty
Leave with pay will be allowed for employees carrying out election duty as a Presiding Officer, Poll Clerk or count staff for any local or national election or referendum, subject to manager approval, on the following basis:
Polling station duties, as a Presiding Officer or Poll Clerk, on the day of election we will allow one day's paid leave.
Count duties
Where election counts take place overnight (for example, parliamentary elections), this work falls outside normal working hours for most employees. In such cases, paid time-off will be granted on the following day, up to a maximum of the hours worked outside of normal working hours, to ensure an appropriate rest period.
Other counts (such as local elections) usually take place the day after the election. If you are scheduled to work during these hours, we will allow one day’s paid leave.
"Election duties" only relate to roles undertaken on behalf of the designated Returning Officer, and do not include activities, such as campaigning, undertaken by members of staff on behalf of political parties or other organisations.
Examination and study leave
Where your studies are relevant to your current and future employment with the council your Head of Service may grant up to a maximum of six paid days study leave per year, to be calculated on the general principle of one day study leave per examination subject and will allow all leave necessary to enable you to sit the associated examinations.
Study leave - apprenticeship levy students
Attending exams is considered normal working time and therefore you should discuss the timing of exams with your manager. Study leave should be your normal study day, which you may agree with your manager to take flexibly during the exam period. For further information refer to the Apprenticeships guide or Apprentices team.
Jury service
If you are selected for jury service you will be given paid time off work to attend court if you are selected for jury service. You will receive a pack of information from the court explaining how to claim for loss of earnings. Refer to the Jury Service guide for more information.
If you are required to attend court on County Council business, you will be allowed paid time off. However, if you are attending court for a non-work-related matter you will attend in your own time and be required to take annual or unpaid leave.
Adverse weather, travel disruption and day care centre/workplace closure
You are expected to carry out your normal contractual hours and duties during adverse weather conditions, travel disruption that is outside of your control (e.g. strikes or natural disasters) and day care centre and workplace closures. However, if you are unable to either work from home or attend work you may be granted leave, and you should refer to the Adverse Weather, travel disruption and school / nursery / adult day centre/workplace closure guide for more information.
Leave of absence for extraneous duties
In the course of any one year, leave of absence for extraneous duties may be granted by Heads of Service for 18 whole days or 36 half days of which no more than 12 whole days or 24 half days will be with full pay.
This scheme doesn’t stop us from looking at individual cases that don’t clearly fit the rules. Any such case must be approved by the Head of Service after consulting their People Business Partner.
Time off for extraneous duties with full pay is available for magistrates and school governors and joint negotiating bodies.
Available support
If you have any questions about this policy, please speak to your manager or AskHR on 01772 535355 or raise a service request in Oracle Fusion. If managers need advice regarding managing a team member's request for leave, they should contact AskHR in the first instance.