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The flexible working pack for veterinary practices

Flexible working has been a day one right since 6 April 2024, employees can make two requests a year, and you have two months to decide including any appeal. Most practices are still running the old process, and the most common error is refusing without consulting first, which is now procedurally wrong however good the business reason is.

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What is in it

• Request form with the two month decision deadline printed on it, to be filled in the day the request arrives.
• Acknowledgement letter that books the consultation meeting rather than just confirming receipt.
• Consultation meeting record with a section for the alternatives explored, which is what makes a consultation real.
• Five decision letters: accepted, accepted on a trial basis, refused, and the appeal outcome.
• Guidance notes on the eight statutory business reasons, why discrimination is the bigger risk, and why job shares are underused in this profession.

Say yes to the trial before you say no to the request

Most refusals are predictions about what would happen if the change were made. A three month trial tests the prediction at almost no risk, and it turns a decision that feels adversarial into one you make together.

The trial letter in this pack makes you state in advance what you will be assessing at the review, because otherwise the review becomes a matter of impression and the employee has no way to succeed at it.

The risk you are actually running

The penalty for getting the flexible working procedure wrong is capped and modest. The discrimination exposure sitting behind it is neither.

Requests connected to childcare, a disability or religious observance carry indirect discrimination risk if refused without proper justification, with no service requirement and no cap on compensation. If a request comes from somebody in one of those situations and you are minded to refuse, that is the point to take advice rather than to reach for a letter.

Job shares fill roles that stay vacant

Where a full time vet or RVN role cannot be filled, two people at three days each frequently can be. The part to design properly is the handover: a paid overlap, a written handover, and clarity about who owns which cases.

It costs a little more per hour and it fills posts that would otherwise sit open for months while freelance cover eats the difference. Read our guide to job shares in a veterinary practice and to flexible working requests.