Rostering and Handover

Contents

1. The Staffing Structure of the Home
2. Handover Policy
3. Annual Leave
4. TOIL
5. Overtime

1. The Staffing Structure of the Home

The Ride is open every day and operates on a 24-hour rota with a minimum of 2 staff on duty after 3pm.

At times there will be more members of staff working at the home in the evening according to the needs of the young people.

Staff work a shift system whereby a minimum of two staff sleep in each night.

The shift starts at 2.30pm and from 2.30 – 3pm staff on duty receive a verbal and written handover from staff on the previous shift.

The late or evening shift ends at 1am, with staff retiring to staff sleeping – in rooms (but are accessible if required during the night).

Shifts then begin again at 7:30 am when staff give the oncoming shift a handover until 8am before going off duty.

This rota pattern is currently being used in line with the European Union Working Time Directives.

Residential workers will usually only work 11 hour sleep in shifts, early or evening support shifts with the occasional day shift.

Rota’s are available to staff one month in advance.

Assistant Managers’ hours are made up of a combination of shifts and daytime hours reflecting the dual role as manager and residential practitioner.

Each shift has a nominated shift leader, indicated on the rota, with full responsibility for the home during the evening shift.

Arrangements are also made at all times i.e. evenings, weekends and holiday periods for the manager or an assistant manager to be available for contact in an emergency.

2. Handover Policy

• The reason handover is so important is to exchange key information relating to the shift from the team coming off duty to the staff coming on duty;
• Information sharing should be clear and concise. Where there is only one member of staff to hand over, wherever possible, this should be the Shift leader who should ensure they have gathered all the views of the team;
• Handovers should take place at the agreed time in order to have time to plan effectively. It is also not supportive to arrive late as this will impact on your colleagues;
• The duration of handover should not exceed 30 minutes. The first 15 minutes should be used to:
  • Check the keys are all accounted for;
  • Check the files;
  • Check Petty cash (see handover file and Petty cash procedure in the Policy file);
  • Discussion regarding Young people.
• The discussion should include all the young people accommodated and their movements, moods, appointments, behaviour and any family/Social worker contact;
• The rest of the time should be used for planning the shift;
• It is of vital importance that the oncoming shift allows the team handing over to be able to give an uninterrupted handover;
• Where the oncoming shift needs additional information and wants to discuss an incident passed over to them, a separate de-briefing time should be identified to ensure that the staff complete handovers in time to receive young people coming in from school;
• Handovers should reflect the individual information held on the Young people’s Daily Record sheets;
• The handover checklist should be complete as part of the planning stage of the handover period and all sections of the form filled out.

3. Annual Leave

Only two staff can be on annual leave at any one time, Managers cannot have leave at the same time!

Annual leave should be booked at least one month in advance. Requests should go initially to the Rota Manager who identifies if staff have already booked leave for that period. If the rota can accommodate the request the application will then go to the manager for agreement. The manager will then sign off the application and return to the rota manager. The leave should then be written on the Annual Leave wall chart and the application filed in the rota planning file.

If Annual leave is requested on a rota that is already out the applicant needs to get permission from the line manager and rota manager in order for the rota to be amended. Ideally the applicant should arrange to swap shifts with another staff member of the same position. All Annual Leave request forms are filed and later archived once leave has been taken.

Staff must not book any annual leave over Christmas and New Year without first discussing it with the Manager. If this is permitted the expectation is that they will work both Christmas and New Year on the following year. The rota will only accommodate one staff member being off over this period.

4. TOIL

It is the responsibility of the staff member to write any TOIL accrued on a TOIL request form (which can be found in the forms filing cabinet) or leave a message in the message book for the rota manager. The rota manager will identify when the TOIL can be taken and he/she will then amend the rota and initial the amendment.

All TOIL should be taken within two weeks wherever possible. If staff accrue TOIL by being kept up late at night the TOIL only begins an hour after the shift has finished (e.g. if staff were due to go off shift at 1am TOIL request starts at 2am). The first hour is included in the sleeping–in allowance.

The TOIL book is kept in the cabinet in the managers office, the assistant manager is responsible for inputting TOIL hours into the book and the rota manager adjusts the rota accordingly.

5. Overtime

All overtime must have been arranged by a Manager prior to staff working the hours. Staff should inform the rota manger of any overtime hours agreed and worked.