Suitable Alternative Employment Decision Tool for NHS Staff

What is suitable alternative employment?

When your job is at risk, your employer should look for another job for you. The offer can be in your own organisation or elsewhere in the NHS: Section 16 of the NHS handbook puts a duty on employers to look for suitable alternative employment before making someone redundant. Whether an offer is suitable depends on how similar the work is to your current job, the terms of the offer, your skills and circumstances, and the pay (including benefits), status, hours and location (gov.uk). The handbook adds that regard should be had to your personal circumstances, but that you are expected to show some flexibility.

The two tests: is the job suitable, and is it reasonable to refuse?

These are separate. The first is about the job and is judged objectively. The second is about you. The Court of Appeal drew this line in Devon Primary Care Trust v Readman, a case about a senior nurse who refused a hospital post on the same pay and grade: suitability is objective, but whether refusing was reasonable looks at this employee in this situation. In practice that means a job that looks similar on paper can still be reasonable to refuse, but only if your reasons are real and you have explained them. The factor worksheet in the tool follows these two questions.

The four-week trial period, and how to check your dates

If you accept an alternative job, you have a statutory trial period of four weeks, which runs from the day you start the new job. If you decide in that time that it is not suitable you must tell your employer in the four weeks, and you are treated as dismissed for redundancy on the original date. Under the Employment Rights Act 1996 the offer must be made before your old job ends, and the new job must start immediately or within four weeks of the end. An extension is possible only for retraining, and only if agreed in writing before you start, with an end date. The date checker in step 4 applies those rules to your own dates.

Can I refuse and still get redundancy pay?

You can lose your statutory redundancy pay if you unreasonably turn down a suitable offer, and the NHS contractual payment has the same condition: Section 16 says you are not entitled to it if you unreasonably refuse, or fail to make a necessary application for, suitable alternative employment, or if you obtain suitable employment with an NHS employer within four weeks. When you claim you certify that this has not happened and agree to repay if it has. The tool shows what is at stake from your own figures, using the same England calculation as our NHS Redundancy Pay Calculator.

Lower band, pay cut or longer journey: does it make the job unsuitable?

There is no fixed percentage or number of minutes in the law. A lower band, lower pay, fewer hours, a longer journey or a fixed-term contract are all differences worth raising, and the comparison flags them against our own lines (a drop of more than 10% in pay, more than 20% in hours, or more than 30 minutes on the journey) purely to prompt questions. The NHS handbook leaves protection of pay and conditions after organisational change to local agreement, so ask what applies to you. Its travel provisions can reimburse extra costs after a change of base for a limited period, applied locally. See pay protection explained if it applies, and the pay protection calculator.

Maternity leave and redeployment priority

If you are made redundant while pregnant or on maternity leave, your employer must offer you a suitable available vacancy, with priority over other employees, for a protected period that runs for a time after the birth. The detail is in ACAS's guidance on redundancy protection for pregnancy and new parents, and our guide redundancy during maternity leave.

If you disagree with your employer

Raise your concerns in writing, ask for the information you need, and keep copies. Speak to your union or staff-side rep, and ACAS (taking another job with your employer). You can challenge an employer's view that a job is suitable at an employment tribunal, and a failure to offer a suitable vacancy that existed can also be a problem for your employer. The Pro letters are written from your answers to help you put your position in writing in time.

How the tool works, and where AI is used

The comparison, factor worksheet, date checks and what-is-at-stake panel are calculated in your browser, with no AI. The assessment and follow-up chat use Google's Gemini model on the structured details you have entered, and are never asked for a verdict. Your first AI assessment on a device is free; Pro removes the limit. Your entries are saved only on your own device so they survive a checkout, and you can clear them. See our AI use disclosure.