Each year, when the UK moves from Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) to British Summer Time (BST), the clocks jump forward by one hour. This shift creates a missing hour in the early morning, and that gap has a direct impact on how visits are created and synchronised between Access People Planner or Access Care Rostering and Access Care Planning.
Visits that fall inside this non‑existent time period cannot be processed by Access Care Planning and are rejected during integration.
What happens during the GMT-to-BST change?
When the clocks move forward:
At 01:00, the time advances straight to 02:00.
The period between 01:00 and 01:59 does not exist.
Any visit scheduled within this window is considered invalid.
Example: A visit set for 01:30 on the day of the clock change never actually occurs.
The affected time window
On the day of the GMT → BST transition:
Any visit scheduled between 02:00 and 03:00 Access People Planner local time.
Is effectively created inside the skipped hour.
And cannot be interpreted correctly by Access Care Planning.
As a result, Access Care Planning does not recognise these visits and rejects them during integration.
Why Access Care Planning rejects these visits
The development team has confirmed the following behaviour:
Access People Planner sends visit times without time‑zone data.
Times are passed as local time only.
When a visit falls inside the skipped hour:
Access Care Planning cannot determine the correct real‑world time and defaults to server time.
Because the skipped hour never occurs, Access Care Planning cannot reliably calculate when the visit should take place. Inferring or adjusting the time automatically could introduce inaccuracies, so Access Care Planning rejects these visits to ensure all schedules remain precise, safe, and consistent.
Recommended workaround
To avoid issues during the GMT to BST transition:
Before the clock change
Avoid scheduling visits inside the affected time window.
Adjust rotas so no visits fall within the skipped hour.
Move any necessary visits to a valid time before or after the change.
If visits already exist
Reschedule them to a valid time outside the non‑existent hour.
Re‑sync once the times have been corrected.
If you need support ahead of the next daylight‑saving change, review rotas in advance or contact your support team for guidance.