Flexible working in the public sector

Employees in England, Scotland and Wales can ask for flexible working from their first day, and public sector employers usually have formal policies that go further than the law. The common arrangements are part-time hours, job shares, compressed hours, flexitime, annualised hours, term-time-only contracts and hybrid working. What is realistic depends heavily on the job: an office-based civil servant can often choose their hours, while a ward nurse or a class teacher works to a rota or timetable that someone else sets.

Your legal right to ask

The statutory rules have applied from day one of employment since 6 April 2024:

1. You can make two requests in any 12-month period.
2. The request should be in writing, saying what change you want and when.
3. The employer must make a decision within two months, including any appeal, unless you agree to extend.
4. The employer must consult you before refusing.
5. A refusal must be for one of eight business reasons, such as extra costs, an inability to reorganise work among other staff, or a detrimental effect on quality or performance.

The Employment Rights Act 2025 will change the test for refusals so that the refusal must be reasonable. The government has not yet set a date for this; it is listed for 2027. Northern Ireland has its own employment law with different qualifying rules, so check nidirect if you work there. The guide to flexible working requests covers the process in detail.

How each sector handles it

NHS

The NHS terms and conditions handbook gives Agenda for Change staff a contractual right to request flexible working, and NHS employers are expected to support it from the start of employment. Self-rostering, where staff choose their shifts within the rules the team agrees, is used on some wards and in some community teams. Annualised hours, where you work a set number of hours over the year rather than each week, suits some staff and services. Many trusts also offer flexible retirement and part-time return after retirement. The guide to NHS shift patterns covers rotas.

Schools

Teaching is the hardest job to flex day to day, because lessons are timetabled. Part-time contracts and job shares are common, especially in primary schools, and part-time teachers are paid pro rata on the same scales. The Department for Education publishes guidance encouraging schools to consider flexible working, and some schools offer planning time at home. Support staff are often on term-time-only contracts already; the term-time-only work guide explains how that pay works.

Councils

Local government has a long history of flexitime, where you can vary your start and finish times around core hours and bank extra hours to take as time off. Many councils have moved office staff to hybrid working. Front-line roles such as refuse collection, care and housing repairs work set shifts, but compressed weeks are sometimes agreed.

Civil Service

Departments generally offer flexible working patterns, part-time, job shares and hybrid working, with most office staff expected to spend a set share of their time in the office. The exact expectation is decided by government and by each department, so check the current policy with your line manager or HR.

The main types of arrangement

Arrangement	What it means	Where it is common
Part-time	Fewer contracted hours, pay pro rata	All sectors
Job share	Two people split one full-time role	Schools, Civil Service, councils, some NHS posts
Compressed hours	Full-time hours over fewer days (for example, four longer days)	Councils, Civil Service, some NHS teams
Flexitime	Vary start and finish around core hours	Councils, Civil Service
Annualised hours	Set number of hours over a year	NHS, some council services
Term-time only	Work during school terms, paid in 12 instalments	School support staff
Hybrid working	Split between home and workplace	Office-based roles in all sectors

What changes when you reduce your hours

Part-time workers have the right not to be treated less favourably than comparable full-timers. Your hourly pay, access to training and promotion chances should be the same.

Pay drops in proportion to your hours. So does holiday: statutory holiday for part-time staff is 5.6 weeks multiplied by the days you work. In the NHS, Agenda for Change staff get their leave pro rata, often calculated in hours so that people working irregular days are treated fairly.

Your pension continues, but you build it up on lower pay. Contribution rates in most public schemes are set on actual pay. For example, the NHS Pension Scheme sets the rate on your actual annual pensionable pay, and the Teachers’ Pension Scheme does the same, so a part-time teacher earning £25,000 pays the lowest TPS rate of 7.4 per cent. The guide to part-time pensions explains the rest.

Take-home pay does not fall in a straight line, because the personal allowance stays the same. The take-home pay calculator shows what a change of hours does to your net pay.

Compressed hours and working time limits

Compressed weeks still have to fit the working time rules. Adults should not work more than an average of 48 hours a week over 17 weeks unless they opt out in writing, should get a 20-minute break when working more than six hours and need 11 hours’ rest between working days. A four-day compressed week of standard full-time hours fits easily; longer patterns in clinical work need careful rota planning.

Making a strong request

Requests are more likely to succeed when they deal with the employer’s practical worries. Say how the work will be covered, how colleagues and service users will reach you, and how handovers will work. Offer a trial period. If you are asking for a job share, read the job share guide before you put the proposal together. If your request is refused and you think the employer did not follow the rules, your union or ACAS can advise you.