A reserve that changes what you promise
An empty space in a calendar is easily sold twice. Make support work a visible part of the capacity agreement. The fictional week below uses hours, not a recommended staffing ratio; replace them with your team’s records.

1. Start with agreed working hours and subtract leave, meetings and other commitments before estimating delivery capacity. Do not count the same hour in two categories.
2. Review recent support interruptions by week, including who handled them. Choose a provisional reserve and record why it fits this period; an average alone can hide a difficult week.
3. Agree what happens when the reserve is exhausted. Name the person who can defer a planned task, arrange cover or renegotiate a date. Do not make overtime the automatic balancing item.
4. Review actual support time and displaced work at the end of the week. Change the next agreement using that record, while keeping the original promise visible.

Agreed week: 40 h; meetings and administration 8 h; available for support and delivery 32 h.
Protected support reserve: 6 h, a provisional choice in this example. Delivery promise = 32 − 6 = 26 h.
Busy-week scenario: Actual support 9 h. The extra 3 h displaces 3 h of the 26 h delivery promise: revised delivery 23 h.
Decision record: Tuesday review: coordinator defers the draft handover by 3 h and tells its recipient. No unrecorded extra hours.
Blank agreement: Period __; agreed hours __; other commitments __; reserve __; trigger __; decision owner __; revised promise __; review __.

Agreed week: ____________________
Protected support reserve: ____________________
Busy-week scenario: ____________________
Decision record: ____________________
Blank agreement: ____________________
A reserve is useful only if its trigger changes a commitment. Six hours is an illustrative planning choice, not evidence that it will cover your next week.

HSE — achievable demands within agreed hours — https://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/standards/demands.htm