Booking Leave¶

This guide explains how to book time off, check your leave balance, and cancel a request if your plans change.

Leave Types¶

When you book leave, you choose a type. Each type has a different purpose and rules.

Annual Leave¶

Your standard paid holiday. It counts against your annual leave quota. Partners book in whole-week blocks (Monday to Friday). Salaried clinicians book individual days.

Day Not Working¶

Available to partners only. Use this for a planned non-clinical day that is not annual leave (for example, an administration day). This does not count against your annual leave quota.

Study Leave¶

For attending courses, conferences, or other educational activities. Study leave does not count against your annual leave quota.

Coroner's Court¶

For days when you are required to attend a coroner's court. This does not count against your annual leave quota.

Planned Sick Leave¶

For pre-arranged medical appointments or planned procedures. This does not count against your annual leave quota. This type can only be added by an administrator — you cannot book it yourself from the leave booking page.

Every request you submit yourself goes to an administrator for review — see What happens after you submit.

Booking Leave¶

Opening the booking form¶

Select Request Leave from the navigation menu — it takes you straight to the booking form. Or
Select My Leave, then press the Book Leave button at the top of the page.

Step 1: Choose leave type¶

At the top of the booking page you see a row of cards, one for each leave type available to you. Click the card for the type of leave you want. The card highlights to show it is selected.

Only the leave types you are eligible for are shown. For example, "Day Not Working" only appears for partners.

A banner at the top shows your remaining annual leave (for example "Annual Leave Remaining: 5 / 25 days").

Step 2: Select dates¶

Once you have chosen a leave type, the calendar unlocks below. The calendar shows weekdays (Monday to Friday) for the current month and roughly the next three months. Use the Previous and Next buttons to jump the whole window earlier or later (you can go back at most one month before the current one).

The calendar uses colour coding to show how much spare capacity each day has:

Green — three or more clinicians could be absent and the practice would still be covered.
Yellow — two clinicians could be absent.
Orange — one clinician could be absent.
Red — no spare capacity; the practice is at or below its minimum staffing level.

When fewer than three clinicians are already off, orange and red are never shown — the colour stops at yellow — so a red day always means three or more people are off.

Other markings on the calendar:

Your own existing leave: pending requests appear with a dashed yellow border, approved requests with a solid green border.
Other clinicians' approved leave appears as their initials; hover to see their names.
Closed days — dates inside a practice closure period (such as the Christmas and New Year shutdown). Leave cannot be booked on these days at all.
Awaiting Release days — dates beyond a booking cutoff set while the practice runs its annual leave round. Annual leave, days not working, and planned sick cannot be booked there yet; study leave and coroner's court still can. The banner clears once the round has settled.

To select a date, click on the day you want.

Salaried clinicians: Click a single day. Each click selects that one day.
Partners booking annual leave: Click any day in the week and the whole working week (Monday to Friday) is automatically selected. Days that cannot take leave are skipped automatically — bank holidays, days where you already have leave, closed days, and past dates.

After you click, a confirmation pop-up appears showing the leave type and the date or dates you selected.

Confirming your booking¶

The confirmation pop-up shows:

The leave type you selected.
The dates that will be booked.
For annual leave, a quota impact section showing how many days or weeks this booking will use and what your remaining balance will be afterwards.

Press Confirm to submit the request. A success message appears at the bottom of the screen.

What happens after you submit¶

Your request is saved with a status of Pending and waits for an administrator. You receive a confirmation email at the address on your account, and a second email when the request is approved or denied.

You can check the status of your request at any time on the My Leave page (see "Checking Your Balance" below).

Checking Your Balance¶

Opening the leave page¶

Select My Leave from the navigation menu.

Annual Leave Summary¶

At the top of the page you see a summary card with three panels:

Remaining -- how many days or weeks of annual leave you have left to take.
Entitled -- your total entitlement for the year, including any adjustments.
Used -- how much you have already used, shown as a number and as a percentage of your entitlement.

Below the three panels is a progress bar that fills up as you use your leave.

If your entitlement has been adjusted (for example due to a change in working pattern), an Adjustments note appears below the progress bar showing the number of days or weeks added or removed.

If your entitlement has not been set up yet, the page shows a message asking you to contact an administrator.

Your leave requests¶

Below the summary, all of your leave requests for the current year are listed, grouped by leave type. Each request shows:

The date range.
The day of the week the leave starts.
The number of days the request covers.
The status:
Pending -- waiting for admin approval.
Approved -- confirmed by an administrator.
Denied -- not approved; a short reason may be shown.
Cancelled -- you (or an administrator) cancelled it. Press Re-request to submit it again (see below).
Cancellation pending -- you have asked to cancel approved leave and an administrator is reviewing that (see below).

If a request has been denied, the reason is displayed next to the status.

Cancelling a Request¶

You can cancel a request that is still Pending or Approved.

Cancelling a pending request¶

Go to My Leave from the navigation menu.
Find the request and press the Cancel Request button next to it.
A confirmation page appears with the full details of the request.
Press Cancel Leave Request to confirm, or Go Back to return without cancelling.

The request is removed from the queue, any annual leave it held is returned to your balance, and an administrator is notified.

Cancelling approved leave¶

Cancelling approved leave works the same way — press Cancel on the request — but what happens next depends on how far ahead the leave is:

More than six weeks away (outside the fixed period): the leave is cancelled immediately. Your working shifts for those dates were already removed when the leave was approved, so the dates become gaps for the next rota generation to fill.
Within the next six weeks (inside the fixed period): the rota for those dates is already settled, so your cancellation needs approval. You are taken to a short form to enter a reason, and the request is submitted to an administrator. The leave shows a Cancellation pending badge, and you can still change your mind with the Withdraw request button until the administrator decides. If approved, the leave is cancelled and your quota is restored; if denied, the leave stays as it was and you are told why.

You cannot cancel a request that has already been denied.

Re-requesting Cancelled Leave¶

If you change your mind after cancelling, you do not need to email anyone — you can put the request back yourself.

Go to My Leave from the navigation menu.
Find the cancelled request and press the Re-request button next to it.
A confirmation page appears with the full details of the request.
Press Re-request Leave to confirm, or Go Back to return without changing anything.

The request returns to Pending and waits for an administrator to approve it, exactly like a new booking — including for leave that starts within the next six weeks, where booking the same dates fresh from the calendar is not allowed. Your remaining quota is checked first, and the request must not overlap leave you have booked in the meantime; if either check fails you will be told why and the request will stay cancelled.

If the dates have since gone out of sync with what you need (for example you have re-booked part of the range), simply book the dates you want instead.

Rules to Be Aware Of¶

A few system rules affect when and how you can book leave.

The six-week fixed period¶

The rota is settled for roughly the next six weeks, so you cannot book leave starting inside that period. If you need time off at short notice, contact an administrator who can add the leave for you.

The same boundary applies to what you can see: on the calendar, your ordinary shifts only appear within this period (leave and bank holidays show further ahead).

Practice closure periods¶

Leave cannot be booked on dates inside a practice closure period — typically the Christmas and New Year shutdown, but the practice can configure any closure. Closed days appear distinctly on the booking calendar. If you have an exceptional circumstance, speak to an administrator.

Booking cutoff after the leave round¶

While the yearly Annual Leave Round is being planned or run, booking of new annual leave for the following year may be held closed (shown as "Awaiting Release" on the calendar) so that nothing is booked before the round settles. Study leave and coroner's court are never affected. If a date you want shows as awaiting release, wait for the round to finish or speak to an administrator. See The Annual Leave Round.

Quota limits¶

Annual leave is limited by your entitlement for the year. When you book, the system checks that you have enough days (or weeks, for partners) remaining. If you try to book more than your balance allows, the system will prevent it and show an error message.

Other leave types (study leave, coroner's court, day not working, planned sick) do not count against your annual leave quota.

Overlapping leave¶

You cannot book leave on a date where you already have an existing leave request, regardless of type. If you need to change your leave, cancel the existing request first and then submit a new one.

Weekends and bank holidays¶

Leave requests cannot include weekends or bank holidays. The calendar only shows working weekdays, and bank holidays are marked so you can see them at a glance.