Absence management procedure

Absence Management Procedure

At Brookdale Day Nursery we encourage all our employees to maximise their attendance at work while recognising that employees will, from time to time, be unable to come to work due to sickness. By implementing this policy, we aim to strike a reasonable balance between the pursuit of our business needs and the genuine needs of employees to take occasional periods of time off work because of sickness. This policy and procedure establishes a framework to support individuals and the organisation in times of sickness absence. It ensures that appropriate and consistent advice is provided and that assistance and support is offered to employees and, where necessary, action is taken.

Principles

We aim to provide a healthy working environment and demonstrate commitment to health, safety and the welfare of staff in order to maximise attendance.

Management is responsible for regularly monitoring and taking appropriate action in connection with sickness and other unplanned absence.

Exclusion periods for contagious illnesses

Working with children means that you are in contact with illnesses which can be highly contagious. We take the health of children and staff very seriously therefore if you have any contagious illness you must adhere to the same exclusion periods as children. This will ensure that you are able to recover appropriately and that this illness is not passed on to other staff, children or parents. The manager will advise you of any exclusion times required (see the sickness and illness and infection control policies).

Sickness absence reporting procedure

Reporting sickness absence should be done using the following guidelines. Failure to follow these guidelines could delay any sick pay due to you and could possibly result in disciplinary action.

On your first day of absence, you must:

· Telephone the nursery and speak to the manager

· Give brief details of your illness and your expected length of absence.

· Telephone and speak to someone yourself. Text message and emails are not an acceptable form of communication for this purpose. Contact someone within one hour of your normal start time. If you are due to start at 7:30 then please contact the manager at least half an hour before your shift is due to start.

If you have been unable to determine how long the absence will last, and it exceeds the third day, you must contact your manager again on the fourth day.

For absences of more than seven consecutive days, you must provide a ‘sick note’ completed by a qualified medical practitioner for the period of absence.

After returning to work from any sickness absence leave, a ‘return to work’ interview may be undertaken by the employee and manager. This will not happen in all circumstances, and we may hold such meetings at our discretion. However, such meetings will normally be held in the following circumstances:

· Where the absence has exceeded 14 days

· Where the nature of the illness means that duties on return to work may need to be altered and clarification and/or consultation is required

· Where a member of staff has had two or more absences in 12 weeks.

During the return to work interview the following will be discussed:

The reason for absence
Whether adjustments to the role (on a temporary or more permanent basis) are required and what they are. These might include adjusted work patterns, start and finish times and changes of duties
Future requirements and expectations, e.g. improved attendance
The return to work interview should be recorded and signed by both the manager and employee and a copy attached to the employee’s file.

Where an employee’s attendance record gives cause for concern because of the duration or frequency of absence, this should be brought to the attention of the employee through a discussion with the manager.

Throughout any stage of discussions on sickness absence, employees may be accompanied by a work colleague.

The abuse of sick leave and pay regulations may be classified as misconduct and will be dealt with through the disciplinary procedure.

Frequent and/or persistent short-term sickness absence

Short-term absence may be short periods of one or two days occurring frequently.

Absence of this nature can be identified by one of the following indicators and should be classed as a trigger:

Four self-certified spells of absence in one calendar year
A total of 10 working days or more of self-certified absence in one calendar year
Patterns of absence over a period, e.g. an individual regularly taking Mondays or Fridays off
Where an employee’s attendance record is significantly worse than those of comparable employees, or absence problems have gone on for a considerable length of time.

Long-term sickness absence

For the purposes of the policy, long-term sickness absence is defined by the nursery as absences lasting over one month.

Where absences have lasted over 14 calendar days or more the manager should contact the member of staff concerned to obtain an initial assessment of the problem and to offer any further help or assistance. This informal contact may be maintained with the employee’s agreement until one month’s continuous absence.

At this point and where felt appropriate after further assessment of the problem, the manager will arrange a face-to-face meeting or telephone conference between themselves and the member of staff. The meeting should:

Seek to confirm the reasons and nature of the absence and its likely duration
Ensure that the member of staff is aware of the nursery’s concern regarding their health and necessary absence from work
Consider offering alternative duties or a shorter working week if this would enable a quicker return to work subject to medical advice
Give consideration to any personal problems being encountered and discuss possible ways of helping the individual resolve these
Advise the member of staff that in their best interests they may be asked to see a registered medical practitioner or occupational health provider appointed by the nursery to enable a medical report to be prepared
Alternatively, and if appropriate, gain agreement from the member of staff to contact their doctor or specialist in order to establish the likely length of absence and the long-term effect on capability in relation to job performance and attendance at work.

If all other avenues have been investigated, the absence continues or, following return to work, the attendance record does not improve, a subsequent meeting should be arranged. At this point, unless there are reasonable grounds to believe there will be an improvement in the foreseeable future, the manager should inform the member of staff that long-term sickness absence due to ill health may put their employment at risk and the possibility of termination by reason of capability or suitability to work with children might have to be considered, taking into account any medical information available.

The position will be reviewed periodically and ultimately it may become necessary from a business perspective to consider termination of employment. In these circumstances, the nursery will:

Review the employee's absence record to assess whether or not it is sufficient to justify dismissal
Consult the employee
Obtain up-to-date medical advice through occupational health
Advise the employee in writing as soon as it is established that termination of employment has become a possibility
Meet with the employee to discuss the options and consider the employee's views on continuing employment
Review if there are any other jobs that the employee could do prior to taking any decision on whether or not to dismiss
Allow a right of appeal against any decision to dismiss the employee on grounds of long-term ill health
Arrange a further meeting with the employee to determine any appeal
Following this meeting, inform the employee of its final decision
Act reasonably towards the employee at all times.

Any decision to terminate employment will be taken by Susan Walker and Keith Cody making sure the capability procedure has been exhausted.

Occupational health

The nursery will engage the services of an independent Occupational Health Advisor in situations where expert medical opinion is required and work with them to identify the best course of action in circumstances of sickness absence.

Access to medical records

The Access to Medical Records Act 1988 gives individuals the right of access to medical records relating to themselves which have been prepared by a medical practitioner for employment purposes. The Act provides that:

Employers must gain the consent of employees before requesting reports from medical practitioners
Employers must inform employees of their rights in respect of medical reports
The employee has the right of access to the report before the employer sees it, provided appropriate notification is given
The employer is responsible for notifying the medical practitioner that the employee wishes to have access
The employee may ask for a report to be amended or may attach a statement to the report
Having seen the report, the employee may wish to withhold consent to it being supplied.

Where the nursery requests further medical information about the health of staff from an individual’s General Practitioner or Specialist, or its own occupational health provider, the provisions of the Act will be followed.

Throughout any interviews regarding sickness absence, staff are entitled to the support of and/or representation by a colleague or union representative.

The nursery reserves the right to request employees see a medical advisor (e.g. consultant, GP or Occupational Health Advisor) during their employment, if it is reasonably deemed necessary due to sickness absence, changes in health or the role, or where it is necessary to seek expert medical opinion as to whether or not the employee can fulfil their job role.

Sick Pay

Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) will be paid in accordance with Department for Work and Pensions requirements and no payment will be made for the first three working days in a period of incapacity for work.

Annual leave and sick pay

Where an employee falls sick or is injured while on holiday, the nursery will allow the employee to transfer to sick leave and take replacement holiday at a later time. This policy is subject to the following strict conditions:

The total period of incapacity must be fully certificated by a qualified medical practitioner
The employee must contact the manager as soon as he/she knows that there will be a period of incapacity during a holiday
The employee must submit a written request no later than five days after returning to work setting out how much of the holiday period was affected by sickness and the amount of leave that the employee wishes to take at another time
Where the employee is overseas when he/she falls ill or is injured, evidence must be produced that the employee was ill by way of either a medical certificate or proof of a claim on an insurance policy for medical treatment received at the overseas location.

Where the employee fulfils all of the above conditions, we will allow the employee the same number of days replacement holiday leave as the number of holiday days lost due to sickness or injury.

Sickness or injury shortly before a period of planned holiday

If an employee is ill or is injured before the start of a period of planned holiday, we will agree to the employee postponing the holiday dates to another mutually agreed time. Any period of sickness absence will then be treated in accordance with the employer's normal policy on sickness absence.

The employee must produce a letter from his/her doctor confirming that he/she is unfit to take the holiday.

The employee must submit a written request to postpone the planned holiday and this must be accompanied by a letter from his/her doctor confirming that he/she is unfit, or is still likely to be unfit to take the holiday.

Replacement holiday dates

Where it is agreed that an employee can take replacement holiday leave at a later time, the employee should nominate replacement holiday dates as soon as possible, with the dates being subject to the agreement of the employee's line manager in the usual way.

Employees should endeavour to take any replacement holiday within the same holiday year as the days lost as a result of sickness or injury. In the event that part or all of the holiday is lost due to incapacity towards the end of the nursery’s holiday year, and there is insufficient time left during that year for the replacement holiday leave to be taken, the employee will be permitted to carry over the replacement holiday to the next holiday year. However, this leave must be taken as early in the new holiday year as possible.

This policy was adopted on	Signed on behalf of the nursery	Date for review
May 2016	Esther Meechan	May 2017

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