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HCS Business Matters - 23 February 2010

Are Fit Notes “fit for purpose”?

The fit note, effective from April, is being introduced as a means of reducing the UK's unacceptably high sickness absence. However the woman who introduced the concept, Dame Carol Black, has now warned that the fit note will simply become "another version of writing a sick note".

The Government has released the final version of the note, giving Doctors an option to tick either “Unfit for work” or “May be fit for work taking into account the following advice (before listing things such as phased return to work, altered hours, amended duties etc). Dame Black is concerned that doctors are not expected to go into detail regarding which activities an employee can carry out on return. She feels that this omission means that the employer and employee are unlikely to be able to decide what is needed to allow someone to come back to work and that the employer will, quite reasonably, be expecting guidance from the Doctor in this regard.

Unless the fit note evolves, it will bring no additional support to employers aiming to get absent staff back to work and its success will largely depend on the relationship between the employee and employer.

Don’t rely on the implementation of fit notes to tackle your absence problem. HCS regularly assist network members with thorny absence issues and train managers via the HCS workshops, to deal effectively with this and other disciplinary issues. Click on our link to the HCS workshops to find out more about our in-house workshops and see how they can develop your managers.

25 February 2010, Administrator