NHS notice periods

There is no national notice period by band in the NHS. The Agenda for Change handbook (version 60) does not set one for resignation or dismissal, so your notice is whatever your own contract or your trust’s policy says. Underneath that sits the legal minimum: if you resign, at least one week once you have been in the job a month, and if your employer dismisses you, at least one week per complete year of service from two years, up to 12 weeks.

Why you will hear different answers

Ask three NHS colleagues how much notice they give and you may get three answers. Some trusts scale notice by band, so a lower band gives less than a senior one. Others use one period for everyone. Contracts signed years ago can carry older terms than the ones a new starter gets. The handbook is a national agreement on pay and conditions, and notice is one of the things it leaves to local contracts.

There are no band figures here because any table you see online comes from one trust’s policy, and your trust may do something else.

Where to find your notice period

Your contract or written statement of employment particulars should state it. If you cannot find it there, look in these places:

• the offer letter or the contract you signed when you started
• your trust’s policy on ending employment, resignation or termination, usually on the intranet
• any variation letter you were sent after a change of role or hours

If none of these gives a figure, ask HR. Do it in writing, so you have the answer on file before you hand in a resignation. Our guide to resigning properly covers what to put in the letter, and the general notice periods guide has the full statutory scale.

What the law adds underneath

Your employer cannot give you less than the statutory minimum when it dismisses you, whatever your contract says. The gov.uk notice page puts it this way: you must be given at least the notice stated in your contract or the statutory minimum, whichever is longer. A trust that dismisses someone on band 5 after four years’ service must give at least four weeks, even if a poorly drafted contract said two.

The same page says some situations allow immediate dismissal, with violence as an example. Outside those cases, notice applies to redundancy, capability and every other dismissal.

How redundancy changes things

Section 16 of the handbook, the redundancy scheme, has several rules that touch on notice:

• You lose your contractual redundancy payment if you leave before your notice expires, unless the employer releases you early.
• If no suitable alternative NHS job exists, you can take work outside the NHS during your notice. If you ask to start it before your notice runs out, the employer releases you on a mutually agreeable date unless there are compelling reasons not to. That date becomes your revised redundancy date for working out your payment.
• A claim for a redundancy payment must be made within six months of the date your employment ended.

The NHS redundancy pay guide explains how the payment is worked out. Leaving early in a redundancy without written release can cost you the payment.

Mutually agreed resignation

Some trusts in England run a Mutually Agreed Resignation Scheme, which is a form of voluntary severance. The handbook treats it as a voluntary resignation in return for a payment, not as redundancy. Your notice and leaving date are agreed as part of the deal, so check them before you sign. The handbook also lists things worth thinking about first, including possible loss of welfare benefits and any effect on your pension. A regulated financial adviser can help with that.

Leaving before your notice ends

If you want to go sooner than your contract allows, ask. Some managers agree, especially if your post is already covered. Get the leaving date in writing. Acas says that if you leave early with the employer’s agreement, the employer only has to pay for the time you worked. Without agreement you may be in breach of contract.

If you are moving to another NHS employer, tell HR so your service is recorded correctly. The moving between NHS trusts guide covers what carries over.