Part Time Regular Reduction 20% and Restricted Separation

Flexible Service is available to Regular Service Personnel.

You can apply for a reduction of 20% service and also choose whether or not you restrict your separation.

For Restricted Separation (RS), separation is defined as absence that prevents you returning to your permanent duty station or Residence at Work address overnight or permanent residence (if different) during normal stand down periods, like weekends.

This means that for each period of 24 hours’ separation, using the above definition, 1 separation day will be awarded.

For part time (PT) working, a reduction is applied to your normal working days and a proportion of normal weekend or stand down days. Most PT arrangements will probably be based on 5-day week routines and so, for a 20% reduction the impact would be a reduction of 1 whole day per working 5-day week plus one weekend in five.

If you take Flexible Service (FS), the days you are not required to attend work are known as Non-Duty Days (NDDs) and, once agreed, come with legal protection.  These days might form part of a regular pattern e.g. taking the same day(s) off each week, or be booked in blocks as part of a working pattern e.g. you take your 20% as a complete block of time.

NDDs will be booked and administered through JPA like leave.

Full-time military service comes with an unlimited liability for duty that means you can be called upon to serve whenever required. This can include being called for duty on weekends and/or stand-down periods between normal duty, shifts, exercises etc.  Such extra duties may be related to your normal work pattern or as part of a wider unit or higher formation tasking.

Under FS, this liability is reduced by the same percentage proportion as your PT work. So a 20% PT arrangement would mean that you would be available for 20% fewer additional duty days than full-time colleagues: you would not be liable for additional duty on 1 whole weekend out of 5.

Some limited liability for separation is retained by MOD and your X-Factor payment will be reduced for as long as the FS RS arrangement is in place.

Every FS arrangement can be different and there is no fixed working pattern but the following apply:

• PT service can only be taken in whole-day reductions
• most PT routines will probably be made up of regular periods and patterns of non-working days but there is no reason why they cannot form longer and/or irregular periods of non-duty
• if you work shifts or other patterns you are not excluded from applying for FS and in most cases, it is expected that a proportionate and fair solution can be worked out
• your revised working pattern should normally be agreed as part of the application process

If you want to reduce your work for long blocks of time, you should also consider special unpaid leave, career intermission or other types of leave.

Under RS you will still be liable for up to 35 days’ separation in a year, which will enable you to be tasked for normal duty, such as courses, exercises and meetings, but will give you protection from significant long-term deployment.

This liability limit will be reduced proportionately for periods less than a year or where you combine RS with PT working.

For RS, some types of separation, like Adventurous Training, do not count towards these separation limits, which are for essential tasks to support operational capability.

If you combine RS and PT, your RS limit will be reduced in the same proportion (by 20% or 40%) and you can only be separated on days when you are on duty or have additional duty liability (unless you and your Line Manager agree a variation or the FS arrangement is suspended or terminated). So for a 20% reduction, the maximum separation in a year would be 28 days.

If you are serving on MLSE terms, such as Military Provost and Guard Service (MPGS), you already have restrictions to separation (limited to 30 days within 30 miles of home unit per year) which reduces the applicability of Flexible Service.

This means that if you are on MLSE terms you are not eligible for Restricted Separation but you can still apply to work part-time.

Here is guidance on how to Apply for Flexible Service.