sportscotland

Human Resources Toolkit

Career Breaks

1.0Introduction

1.1sportscotland is committed to improving working lives and attracting and retaining experienced and competent employees.

1.2sportscotland recognises that employees should be able to balance their paid work with other commitments and responsibilities and as such may have times during their career when they wish to seek a longer period of time away from work than that provided for by other leave arrangements.

2.0Scope of Policy

2.1The following arrangements set out the agreed criteria to enable employees to take a period of unpaid leave as a Career Break.

2.2Each request will be considered on an individual basis taking full account of the circumstances of the employee and will be subject to both management and SMT approval on the basis of business need during the requested period of absence.

2.3Requests may be refused where there are justifiable reasons for not agreeingfollowing consultation with the Line Manager and the HR Business Partner. The employee will be notified of the reasons for any refusal in writing. See Making a Career Break Application section for more details

2.3This policy applies to all sportscotland employees.

2.4This policy should be read inaddition to the following policies:

  • Family Friendly Policy
  • Flexible Working Policy
  • Time Off Policy

3.0Guidelines

3.1A Career Break can be used for a variety of purposes including but not limited to:

  • Time off on account of childcare, fostering, elderly care, care for another dependant for other family responsibilities
  • Time off to allow an employee to undergo a university or college course, or to allow for a period of study
  • Time off to allow an employee to pursue a personal interest or undertake a personal project
  • Overseas travel i.e. for the purpose of visiting family
  • Any other purpose agreed with sportscotland

Eligibility

3.2 Employees must have at least 36 months continuous service to be eligible to apply for a Career Break.

3.3 Approval of a Career Break is entirely at sportscotland’s discretion and will be depend on the needs of the business during the time of the requested period of absence.

Length of Career Break

3.4sportscotland will consider Career Breaks requests for a period of no less than three months and no more than twelve months.

Breaks of less than three months should be made through a request for unpaid leave of absence. See Time Off Policy.

CONDITIONS OF A CAREER BREAK

Outstanding Debt Owed to sportscotland

3.5Where the employee has an outstanding debt owed to sportscotland, they will expected to clear this debt prior to commencing their career break. Debts include but are not limited to:

  • learning agreement
  • loan agreement
  • salary advance
  • cycle scheme
  • lease car

Failure to repay all outstanding debts prior to commencing the career break may result in the approved application being revoked.

For the avoidance of doubt, any outstanding monies borrowed from sportscotland must be repaid prior to the commencement of a Career Break.

3.6Where an employee is part of the Car Lease Scheme, redemption charges will apply unless the vehicle can be transferred / taken on by another person in the lease scheme. Where this is not possible redemption charges in accordance with the scheme will apply.

Where an employee is part of the Cycle Scheme, redemption charges will apply. These will be in accordance with the relevant scheme and/or policy.

Outstanding Annual Leave

3.7 Where an employee has outstanding pro rata annual leave entitlement they should arrange for the leave to be taken prior to the commencement of their career break.,

Where it is not possible for the pro rata outstanding leave to be taken, they will be entitled to be paid, up to a maximum of 5 days leave in their final salary before commencing the period of leave. Any outstanding but untaken leave over and above the 5 days will be lost upon the commencement of the period of leave.

Where an employees goes on a career break they are not able to carry leave over from one leave year to another.

Paid Employment

3.8 Employees on a Career Break will not be allowed to undertake paid employment with another employer unless there are very special circumstances which must be approved by the SMT during their period of leave.

However employees can undertake unpaid voluntary or charitable work.

3.9Where an employee wishes to utilise a carer break to undertake paid work outside sportscotland, they would be required to resign.

Only in exceptional circumstances, where an employee wishes to take a career break to accommodate sports training commitments would paid work be considered by SMT.

Confirmation of Agreement

3.10All career breaks are subject to written agreement between sportscotland and the employee before the break begins.

Confirmation of the agreement will be provided to the employee in writing detailing the conditions of the period of leave.

A template Career Break Agreement can be found in Appendix 2.

Continuity of Service

3.11During the Career Break all rights under the Contract of Employment will be suspended. However, for the purpose of continuity of employment, the period of the Career Break will count in the calculation of continuity of service for statutory purposes.

For the avoidance of doubt, there will no entitlement to any contractual benefits or pay or any accrual in relation to benefits such as annual leave, family friendly provisions or pay during the period of the Career Break.

Pension Scheme Members

3.12Under the Administration Regulations, members of a sportscotland recognised pension scheme returning from an approved career break (leave of absence) are permitted to make payment in respect of the pension contributions that would have been payable if they had not been absent on a career break.

The scheme member must make payment in respect of the first 30 days of absence to ensure that there is no break in service for pension purposes.

Where a leave of absence extends beyond 30 days, the member can, within 30 days of their return to work choose to make payment in relation to the pension contributions for the unpaid period.

sportscotland will not normally allow a late application by a member to pay optional contributions for a career break except where the employee can demonstrate exceptional circumstances apply.

Effect on Pay

3.13The total period of the Career Break will be unpaid.

3.14Salaryupon returning to work will be at the level (job family / pay point) applicable immediately prior to the break, reflecting pay awards made during the break unless the employee is on salary protection.

Where an employee has salary protection they will receive the protected amount upon return to work should that amount not have been exceeded by pay awards during the period of the Career Break.

3.15Where an employee has salary protection at the start of a Career Break the duration of the Career Break will form part of the period for which the protection has been/is being applied.

Return to Work

3.16Employees are required to confirm in writing to their Line Manager their intention to return to work on the agreed dare. This notice must be writing at least 1 month before the intended return to work date. This is to allow any re-induction or other arrangements to be made by the Line Manager.

3.17Service or organisational change that may take place during an employee’s Career Break all apply in the same way as if the employee has been at work. The employee will be neither advantaged nor disadvantaged by the Career Break. Any return to work with sportscotland, specific department or specific post will be subject to that work/post still being reasonably available at the time of the intended return.

sportscotland, in the event of organisational change, reserves the right to terminate employment on the grounds of organisational change/redundancy in accordance with the Redundancy Policy.

3.18Upon returning from the Career Break employees will be entitled to return to their contractual post, or at sportscotland’s discretion a suitable alternative post.

3.19If during the Career Break period the employee engages in any acts or omissions which in the opinion of sportscotland impacts on their employment then sportscotland may invoke the Discipline Policy during the Career Break.

Communications

3.20Employees are required to maintain a level of contact during the Career Break, which must be agreed with their Line Manager prior to commencement of the Career Break.

There is an obligation on both parties to keep in touch during the period of the Career Break.

3.21If there is no communication from the employee then the agreement may be deemed null and void on the basis that the employee has failed to comply with the conditions of the Career Break. In the event of this occurring, sportscotland may choose to follow the Discipline Policy.

3.22In exceptional circumstances, in order to maintain the service, an employee on a Career Break may be contacted to ascertain if they were willing to return to their position within sportscotland earlier than the date specified.

Learning & Development / Re-induction

3.23 Upon returning to work from a Career Break, the Line Manager should put in place L&D arrangements to re-induct the individual into workplace and allow them to effectively fulfil the requirements of the role giving regard to the length of their break from the organisation.

This could include the employee voluntarily attending the workplace for an additional number of days in the three months prior to date of return, or an intensive induction including mandatory training on return.

IT Equipment, Systems Access & ID Cards

3.24 All sportscotland IT equipment including but not limited to laptop, blackberry, mobile broadband devices etc should be returned to the IT team via the employees Line Manager prior to the commencement of the career break.

The equipment will be retained by the IT team until the employee returns from their period of leave.

User accounts will be disabled for the period of the career break, and it is the responsibility of the Line Manager to notify IT of the duration of the leave, and to provide details of mail redirection etc.

ID access cards should also be handed back to the IT team via the employees Line Manager.

Upon returning from the period of career break all equipment and systems access will be reinstated.

MAKING A CAREER BREAK APPLICATION

3.25All applications must be made in writing and endorsed by the Line Manager before being submitted to SMT for final approval.

Applications must give a minimum of three months notice of the requested start date.

See Appendix 1 for the Career Break Application form.

3.26During the period of leave the employee is entitled to request the period be extended or reduced may be made by giving a minimum of three months notice. Early returns to work may be requested and accommodated where it is possible for the Line Manager to make suitable arrangements in accordance to the needs of the business.

3.27Each application will be considered and assessment initially by the employee’s Line Manager / Head of Department to determine whether they are endorse the request i.e. are able to accommodate the request within the context of the needs of the business.

3.28The length ofany break shouldbalance the needs of the employee with the needs of the business. There may be occasions where the complete duration of leave is not approved, but a proportion of the total period may be offered.

3.29Once the application has been endorsed by the Line Manager, it should be forwarded to the SMT for final approval.

Outcome of a Career Break Application

3.30The outcome ofall applications, whether approved or rejected will be confirmed to the employee in writing providing justification for the rationale for the decision.

The outcome will be approved or rejected in accordance with one of the following criteria:

Team / Department has capacity to approve the request

Team / Department does not have capacity to approve the request

Does not meet the needs of the business

3.31The justification will be both on the outcome from the Line Manager’s endorsement, and also the final approval from SMT.

This will be in addition to the criteria checked within the application form.

Not Returning to Work From a Career Break

3.32If an employee wishes to terminate their contract of employment during a Career Break they must do so by giving written notice in accordance with their contract of employment.

3.33Failure to return on the specified date without seeking a formal extension of leave will be regarded as a breach of contract and deemed to gross misconduct entitling sportscotland to terminate the employees employment without notice in accordance with the Discipline policy.

APPEALS PROCESS

3.34 If employees are unhappy with the outcome of their career break application, details of the appeals process can be found at Section 5 of the HR Toolkit.

RECORD KEEPING

3.35It is important that all parties keep clear, written records of any career break applications made. sportscotland’s records will include:

  • details of the application, including the date it was made and any previous applications
  • details of the outcome of the application
  • the reasons for the outcome
  • details of any appeal and the appeal outcome
  • relevant subsequent developments.

3.36 These records will be treated as confidential and kept in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998.

3.37 Paper records will be maintained in secure surroundings by HR.

RESPONSIBILITIES

3.38 Employees have a responsibility to:

  • provide as much information as possible within their career break application
  • consider the affects their application will have on their role, team and the organisation.

3.39Line Managers have a responsibility to:

  • consider all applications on an individual basis
  • consider the impact an application will have on their team, colleagues and the organisation.

3.40HR will monitor the implementation of this policy and will provide professional advice and support to employees on policy and process.

4.0 Compliance

4.1Employees who do not support this policy and procedure may be subject to disciplinary action.

4.2Compliance with this policy will be monitored by the Senior Management Team

5.0Associated Documents

5.1 APPENDIX 1 – CAREER BREAK APPLICATION FORM

Please refer to the sportscotland Career Break Policy prior to completing this form.

In order to avoid any delay in the process and to ensure your application is valid, please answer all the questions and provide as much information as you can about your desired working pattern. Once you have completed the form, you should immediately forward it to your Line Manager and HR (keep a copy for your own records).

PART 1

1. Personal Details (To be completed by Employee)
Name: Job Title:
Reports to: Department:
2. Dates of Career Break
From:
To
3. Details of Career Break Request
Reason for Request:
4. Dates of Career Break
From:
To
5. Potential Impact of Career Break on Department
6. Employee Confirmation
Signed:
Dated:

PART 2 – To Be Completed by Line Manager/Head of Department & HR Business Partner

To be completed by Line Manager / Head of Department
I agree to ………………………………………… taking a Career Break
from ……………………… to …………………………….
I do not agree to ………………………………………… taking a Career Break for the
following reasons …………………………………………………………………………………….
………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
………………………………………………………………………………………………......
………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Line Manager Confirmation
Signed:
Dated:
Title:
To be completed by HR Business Partner
I have reviewed this application with the above named Line Manager/Head of Department and support their decision to support/reject the requested Career Break.
HR Business Partner Confirmation
Signed:
Dated:

sportscotland HR Toolkit – Career Breaks Policy

Last Reviewed December 2013 – Version 0.4