Sickness & Absence Reporting

Why the procedure is strict

When you are off, someone must still be at every visit — our clients depend on it. The reporting procedure exists so cover can be arranged in time, not to make being ill harder.

Reporting

• Phone the office (or on-call, out of hours) as early as possible — at least 2 hours before your first visit. Speak to a person: texts, emails and messages via colleagues are not acceptable except in genuine emergencies.
• Tell us: what's wrong (in general terms), which visits are affected, and when you expect to return. Vomiting or diarrhoea means 48 hours clear before returning (see Infection Prevention & Control).
• Keep in touch as agreed during your absence, and confirm your return the day before so cover can be released.

Certification and sick pay

• Up to 7 calendar days: self-certification (recorded in the Hub or on the office form). Beyond 7 days: a GP fit note, submitted promptly, with follow-ups covering the whole absence.
• Statutory Sick Pay is payable from the first day of sickness under the April 2026 SSP reforms. Your contract sets out any occupational sick pay on top.
• If a fit note says 'may be fit for work' with adjustments, talk to your manager — amended duties or hours may be possible.

Returning to work

• After every absence you'll have a short, supportive return-to-work chat: how you are, whether work contributed, whether we can help. It is recorded and it is not a telling-off.
• Patterns of frequent short absence are reviewed under our absence procedure with defined trigger points — always with the conversation first, and always taking disability-related and pregnancy-related absence properly into account.