Holiday for part-time dental nurses and receptionists in 2026: 5.6 weeks, eight bank holidays, and how many days a Monday-to-Wednesday worker has left

A practice manager is building the 2026 rota. The practice shuts on bank holidays, as most do, and a part-time nurse asks why she seems to have fewer days to book than the full-timer's total suggests. She is right, and the reason is arithmetic that depends on which weekdays she works.

What GOV.UK says the entitlement is

On the page we read, "almost all people classed as workers are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks' paid holiday a year". For a five-day week that is 28 days, and the page says statutory holiday is capped at 28 days, so someone on a six-day week also gets 28.

For part-timers who work regular hours all year, the page says they get "at least 5.6 weeks' paid holiday, but this will amount to fewer than 28 days", with the example that on 3 days a week they "must get at least 16.8 days' leave a year (3 x 5.6)". It also says "an employer can choose to include bank holidays as part of a worker's statutory annual leave". The bank holidays page adds that "your employer does not have to give you paid leave on bank or public holidays". So whether bank holidays are on top of the 5.6 weeks is a matter for the contract, and the contract is where this must be written down.

The 2026 bank holidays, by weekday

GOV.UK lists these for England and Wales in 2026, with Boxing Day moved to a substitute Monday because 26 December is a Saturday:

That is eight days: five Mondays, two Fridays and one Thursday.

Our check: days left to book

If the practice is shut on all eight and treats them as part of statutory leave, each person's bank holidays are only the ones that land on a day they would have worked.

The Wednesday-to-Friday row counts the Thursday and the two Fridays, which is three. The gap between the Monday-to-Wednesday and Tuesday-to-Thursday workers is 15.8 - 11.8 = 4 days, for exactly the same statutory entitlement. A fair way to handle it, if you count bank holidays as leave, is to say so in the contract and prorate by hours, not by the label of the day. Whether a different method is required where it disadvantages Monday workers, we have not read a rule on and do not state one.

What to put on the rota

1. Write down, for each person, whether bank holidays are inside or on top of their statutory leave.
2. Give each part-timer their days left in the form above, so the figure is not a surprise in the spring.
3. For a person who works irregular hours or part of the year, GOV.UK says leave builds up with hours worked. Use the GOV.UK calculator rather than our table.
4. Keep the figures with the year's rota; a patient-facing closed date is easier to defend when the staff arithmetic is on file.

For the pay side of the same people, see our guides on sick pay at £123.25 a week and the minimum wage from April 2026. For the cost of a closed surgery day, use the surgery hourly rate calculator.

What we could not confirm

We did not confirm how holiday pay is calculated for staff with irregular hours or variable pay, how a person who joins or leaves part way through the year is treated, or whether carrying leave over is allowed. The GOV.UK landing page for the calculator gave no rules. We also did not check Scottish or Northern Irish bank holidays, which differ.

Overlyft can set up an AI assistant that reads your rota and contracts, works out each person's days left after bank holidays and drafts the leave balance note for each member of staff for the practice manager to approve.

This is general information, not legal or financial advice.