All staff have an annual leave entitlement that renews from 1 April. How much leave you have will depend on your years of service – please see the table below.
Annual leave is shown in hours not days to ensure equity for all especially for colleagues who work shifts or who work on a part time basis. The basic annual leave provisions under Agenda for Change are:
| Length of service | Annual leave and general public holidays |
| On appointment | 202.5 hours and 60 hours |
| After five years | 217.5 hours and 60 hours |
| After 10 years |
247.5 hours and 60 hours |
Find out more about calculating your annual leave in the drop down below.
Colleagues may request to purchase additional annual leave hours up to and including 75 hours per annual leave year (pro-rata for part time colleagues).
The form is available on YourHR – Workforce - SelfHelp (merseycare.nhs.uk) – purchase Annual leave.
In accordance with Agenda for Change, colleagues have an annual leave entitlement based on the length of their continuous NHS service. Colleagues have a responsibility to ensure that annual leave is taken across the year, and in exceptional circumstances, where colleagues have been prevented from taking their annual leave before the end of the leave year, because of operational demands, they may, with the prior approval of their manager carry over to the next leave year, up to one working week. This should be the exception.