NHS Suitable Alternative Employment Decision Tool
Been offered an alternative role during redundancy consultation? Compare it against your current role for free, then get a personalised AI assessment of the factors for and against treating it as "suitable" — before you risk losing your statutory redundancy pay over an unreasonable refusal.
New to all this? Read Suitable Alternative Employment Explained first for the full legal picture.
Compare your current role to the offer
Your current role
The offered role
Your personalised assessment
Your first AI-generated assessment is free on this device.
This tool gives general guidance, not legal advice, and is not a substitute for advice from ACAS, your trade union, or a specialist employment solicitor. FrontlinePay is an independent site and is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, ACAS, the NHS, any NHS trust, NHS England, or any trade union or professional regulator.
Short answer
Enter your current role and the offered role and we instantly compare them for free — pay, band, weekly hours, one-way commute, and contract type — with factual flags for anything that stands out, like a pay drop over 10% or a commute increase over 30 minutes. Then your first AI-generated personalised assessment is also free — covering factors that would likely support or weaken a case that the offer isn't suitable, and practical next steps like requesting your 4-week statutory trial period — with unlimited follow-up questions available via FrontlinePay Pro or a one-time unlock. This is general guidance, not legal advice — always confirm anything case-specific with ACAS, your union, or a solicitor before you respond to the offer.
What this tool does, in two parts
The role comparison is deterministic and free — no AI involved, and it never leaves your browser as anything more than a straightforward numbers comparison. The personalised assessment and follow-up chat are powered by Google's Gemini model, given the structured comparison you've generated (pay, band, hours, commute, contract type, years of service, and whether you've already raised concerns) — it never invents facts about your situation that you haven't told it.
Why getting this decision right matters so much
Under section 141 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, an employee who unreasonably refuses a genuinely suitable offer of alternative employment can lose their entire statutory redundancy payment. That's a much harder outcome to reverse than simply accepting a role you later decide isn't for you — which is exactly what the 4-week statutory trial period exists to protect against.
⚠A trial period protects you — silence or delay doesn't
You're entitled to try an offered alternative role for 4 calendar weeks (starting when your old contract ends) without losing your right to redundancy pay if it turns out not to suit you. But this protection is time-limited and procedural — if you're unsure whether an offer is suitable, raise it in writing and ask about the trial period rather than staying silent or simply not turning up, which is far more likely to be treated as an unreasonable refusal.
What the AI assessment covers
- ✓ A plain-English summary of how your comparison stacks up, based on what you've told it
- ✓ Factors that would likely support treating the offer as not suitable, given your specific comparison
- ✓ Factors that would likely weaken that case — so you see both sides, not just the ones that suit a decision you've already made
- ✓ Practical next steps: requesting the trial period, requesting specifics in writing, raising concerns formally before any deadline
- ✓ Specific pages on this site worth reading next, matched to your situation
What it deliberately won't do
It won't tell you to accept or refuse the offer, and it won't predict what a tribunal would decide if this were disputed — no AI tool honestly can, without seeing your full facts and evidence. It's built to consistently point you toward ACAS, your trade union or Royal College, or a specialist employment solicitor before you make a final decision, in the same spirit as our companion guide, Suitable Alternative Employment Explained.
Why trust this tool
- ✓ Comparison thresholds documented and reasoned in the tool's own code, figures correct as of September 2026
- ✓ The role comparison runs entirely from the figures you enter using fixed, named thresholds — no AI involved in that part at all
- ✓ The AI system prompt is instructed to never give a definitive suitability verdict, and to consistently redirect to ACAS, your union, or a solicitor
- ✓ One free AI-generated assessment per device — no account trickery, no hidden second call
- ✓ Your intake details and the AI's response are logged only for quality review, never shared or sold
More tools & guides
Suitable Alternative Employment Explained
The full legal picture: the 4-week statutory trial period, what makes an offer 'suitable', and what counts as an unreasonable refusal.
NHS Redundancy Pay Calculator
Work out the Section 16 statutory redundancy lump sum you stand to lose if a refusal is judged unreasonable.
NHS Redundancy Pay Explained
How the statutory redundancy formula works, who qualifies, and how the tax-free split is calculated.
NHS Redundancy Hub
Every redundancy guide and tool in one place, from at-risk notices through to your final payment.
NHS Dismissal Guidance Advisor
If your situation is really a dismissal rather than a redundancy, this tool covers ACAS deadlines and an AI action plan instead.
NHS Career Earnings Forecaster
Model how the offered role's pay and progression would compare over several years, not just on day one.
Frequently asked questions
Why does this decision matter so much? +
Because of section 141 of the Employment Rights Act 1996: if you're offered a genuinely 'suitable' alternative role and you turn it down without good reason, you can lose your entire statutory redundancy payment — not a reduced amount, all of it. This tool exists to help you structure that decision properly rather than deciding on gut feel alone.
Is the role comparison free, or does it need Pro? +
The role comparison — pay, band, hours, commute and contract type, with factual flags for each — is completely free and always visible once you've filled in both roles. No account, no payment, and no AI call involved. Only the AI-generated personalised assessment and follow-up questions are gated after your first free use.
Does the AI tell me whether to accept or refuse the offer? +
No, and it's built deliberately not to. It never states that an offer 'is' or 'isn't' suitable, or that you'd win or lose if this were disputed — nobody can know that without seeing the full facts. Instead it sets out factors that would likely support, and factors that would likely weaken, a case that this particular offer isn't suitable alternative employment, so you can think it through with your union or a solicitor.
How many free AI assessments do I get? +
One. Your first personalised assessment is free on this device. After that, unlocking the AI SAE Decision Tool (£14.99, 90 days) or FrontlinePay Pro gives you unlimited follow-up questions grounded in your own comparison.
What's the 4-week trial period, and does this tool explain it? +
It's the statutory right (Employment Rights Act 1996) to try an offered alternative role for 4 calendar weeks without losing your redundancy rights — if you reasonably decide during or at the end of that period that it isn't right for you, you're still treated as made redundant from your original date. The AI assessment references it directly where relevant, and the full mechanics are covered in our companion guide, Suitable Alternative Employment Explained.
What if I've already started the new role? +
This tool is built around deciding whether to accept an offer, but the same comparison and AI assessment are still useful if you're partway through a trial period and reconsidering — just enter the role details as offered. Raise any concerns with your employer in writing as early as possible either way.