NHS Scotland Annual Leave in Hours on a 36-Hour Week

This guide is for Agenda for Change staff in NHS Scotland who want to know how many hours, not just days, of annual leave and public holiday they have in 2026/27 now that the full-time week is 36 hours. It gives the figures for full-time, part-time and shift workers, explains the public holiday allocation for this leave year, and shows how many shifts of different lengths your hours cover. The source is the Scottish Agenda for Change Handbook (Section 13) and Scottish Government circulars PCS(AFC)2025/8, PCS(AFC)2026/2 and PCS(PHG)2026/1. FrontlinePay is independent; your board has the final word on your entitlement.

Leave in hours for a full-timer

The Scottish Handbook (Section 13, Table 6) gives annual leave in days, and the days are the same as in England: 27 days on appointment, 29 days after five years' reckonable service and 33 days after ten, plus 8 public holidays. The days are unchanged by the 36-hour week (circular PCS(AFC)2025/8, FAQ 10). The hours are days multiplied by the standard day of 7.2 hours. Reckonable service counts continuous previous service with any NHS employer (Handbook 12.1).

Scottish staff therefore get the same number of days off as English staff but a smaller number of hours, because each day is shorter (7.2 against 7.5 hours). When you take a day of leave on a standard shift you use up 7.2 hours. If you work a different shift length, the hours you use are the hours you would have worked.

Some local arrangements consolidate part or all of the public holidays into annual leave, which the Handbook allows subject to local agreement (13.2). In Scotland the leave entitlement already includes the two extra days that in England used to be called extra-statutory days (13.3), so nothing is added on top of Table 6.

Public holidays in 2026/27 and 2027/28

The standard allocation for Agenda for Change staff is 8 public holidays a year. In 2026/27 two things push it up. An extra public holiday was announced for NHS Scotland to mark the first game of the men's FIFA World Cup, and Good Friday and Easter Monday in 2027 fall on 26 and 29 March, inside the 2026/27 leave year (which ends on 31 March), as well as the April 2026 Easter holidays. In boards where the Easter holidays form part of the allocation, staff therefore get 3 more public holidays than usual in 2026/27. The Scottish Government's circular PCS(PHG)2026/1 gives the totals for staff in that position:

The Scottish rule for the extra days is that they are added to the allocation for 2026/27 and taken off the following year's, so the 2027/28 total of 6 days is not a loss: it reflects Easter 2027 falling in March rather than April. The same principle applies to staff on maternity, adoption or shared parental leave, who keep the right to public holidays, with carry-forward of untaken entitlement agreed locally (Handbook 15.94 and 15.95, via the circular). Executive and Senior Manager staff follow the same approach on a 37.5-hour basis.

Working a public holiday: staff who work or are on call on a general public holiday are entitled to equivalent time off in lieu at plain time in addition to the appropriate payment (Handbook 13.4). See NHS bank holiday pay explained and bank holidays on 12-hour shifts and TOIL. Where Christmas Day, Boxing Day or New Year's Day falls on a weekend, boards must arrange things so staff keep the right to three public holidays in the Christmas and New Year period (Handbook 2.23).

Part-time and non-standard shifts

Part-time staff get the same entitlements pro rata (Handbook 11.1). For annual leave that means a share of the full-time hours equal to your weekly hours divided by 36. For public holidays the rule is different: weekly hours are divided by 5 and multiplied by the number of public holidays, then rounded up to the nearest half day (Handbook 13.6 and circular PCS(PHG)2026/1, paragraph 4), and the public holidays are added to annual leave, with the member taking those they would normally work as annual leave (13.7). The table applies these rules to some common patterns. The last column rounds the 2026/27 figure of 11 public holidays in the same way.

Annual leave hours are the days multiplied by 7.2 and by your weekly hours divided by 36. Public holiday hours assume the day length in the second column; if your shifts are a different length, round-up is to half of that shift. For 36 hours worked as three 12-hour shifts, public holidays are 8 days of 7.2 hours (57.6 hours), not eight 12-hour shifts. Calculations by the leave engine that powers our NHS Annual Leave Calculator.

Staff on standard shifts other than 7.2 hours, excluding meal breaks, have leave and public holidays worked out on an hourly basis so they receive neither more nor less than colleagues on standard shifts (Handbook 13.5, as amended by circular PCS(AFC)2026/2). If your hours changed during the year, each period is calculated separately, using the hours worked in that period and the number of public holidays in it (PCS(PHG)2026/1, FAQ 1). Staff who start part-way through the year get an allocation based on the public holidays designated between their start date and 31 March (FAQ 2). For a joiner, leaver or accrual question, the NHS Annual Leave Calculator does the arithmetic.

How many shifts is that?

Leave is in hours, so the number of shifts you can book off depends on how long your shifts are. Dividing the full-time hours by common shift lengths:

A fraction means part of a shift: 16.2 twelve-hour shifts is 16 shifts and 2.4 hours. Local rules decide whether part shifts can be booked or the remainder is taken in another way, so check your board's policy.

How the hours are worked out

1. Find your service tier. Reckonable service is continuous previous service with any NHS employer, and a previous period of NHS service counts when you return (Handbook 12.1 and 12.4). Under five years you are on 27 days, five years or more on 29, ten years or more on 33.
2. Multiply by the standard day. Days x 7.2 for a full-timer on standard shifts. If your normal shift is not 7.2 hours, use your contracted hours: the Handbook says leave is worked out on an hourly basis for those staff.
3. Pro rata for part time. Multiply by weekly hours divided by 36.
4. Add public holidays as designated locally, by the 13.6 rule if you are part time.
5. Add hours carried over from 2025/26. They are not scaled down for the shorter week (circular PCS(AFC)2025/8, FAQ 18).

Pay during annual leave includes regularly paid supplements, such as recruitment and retention premia, payments for work outside normal hours and high cost area supplements, and is based on what you would have received had you been at work, normally over the previous three months (Handbook 13.9). In Scotland that paragraph is read together with circular PCS(AFC)2019/6, and further annual leave guidance is in PCS(AFC)2025/06. See also NHS holiday pay and regular overtime.

Planning your leave

With a fixed number of hours, the way to get more days away is to place leave next to public holidays and weekends. The NHS Leave Planner takes your shift pattern and your leave hours and shows the best-value breaks around bank holidays; it uses the same leave engine as our annual leave calculator and switches to a 36-hour week for NHS Scotland. The core planner is free to try and a paid option unlocks the whole year; see the planner page for what is included. For entitlement, accrual and what is left use the NHS Annual Leave Calculator, and for the general rules on buying and selling leave see buying and selling annual leave.

Sources

NHS Scotland Agenda for Change Handbook, Section 13, Section 12, Section 11 and Section 2; Scottish Government NHS Circulars PCS(AFC)2025/8, PCS(AFC)2026/2 and PCS(PHG)2026/1. England comparison from the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook, Section 13. Last checked October 2026.