Renfrewshire Council

As part of our ongoing commitment to supporting our employees' health, wellbeing, and work-life balance, the Buying Additional Annual Leave (BAAL) scheme is open for employees from Thursday 9 January 2025 until Friday 31 January 2025.    

Employees will be able to request to buy up to a maximum of six weeks additional annual leave. These requests should be considered in line with the operational requirements of your service. 

Who can buy additional annual leave

All employees can apply to join the scheme apart from those on: 

• term-time contracts 
• teaching contracts (including educational psychologists)
• sessional or seasonal contracts and casuals. 

Employees on temporary and fixed term contracts can apply if their contracts expire after 31 March 2026.  

Employees who have expressed an interest in VR/VER may also buy additional annual leave, providing that they are not leaving employment prior to 31 March 2026. 

How to approve or decline a request 

As a line manager, you will be able to review requests for BAAL from the colleagues you line manage on Business World.  

Before you approve or decline the request, you should: 

• check with your Senior Management Team to confirm if requests are being agreed centrally within your service at a senior level 
• check any carry over of annual leave from 2024 before approving or declining the requests  
• provide support to your team members who need help with submitting a BAAL request
• managers should not recruit additional employees or use temporary employees to cover for an employee who has "bought" additional annual leave.  However, it is recognised that essential services may need to cover any leave taken. In these circumstances, services should ensure that no additional costs are incurred to cover the leave.

Buying Additional Annual Leave Process

You must approve or decline all requests by Friday 14 February 2025.  

If you decline a request, your team member will get a notification on Business World. However, you should also discuss the reason for declining their request with them. 

Reasons for declining a request could include: 

• a detrimental effect on customer or business requirements 
• it's not possible to reallocate or reorganise the work amongst existing employees 
• they don't meet the criteria to request to buy additional annual leave 
• the length of employee's temporary or fixed term contract 
• the costs associated with covering additional annual leave cannot be accommodated 
• they have made a duplicate request in error 
• the form has not been completed correctly. 

Check the user guide on how to approve or decline a BAAL request on Business World.  [380KB]  

If you need any additional information about buying additional annual leave 

If you have any questions relating to the BAAL guidance, speak to your line manager or contact your link HR  and OD Team in the first instance. 

You can also email employeebenefits@renfrewshire.gov.uk if you have any questions about the scheme.