Government publishes response to review of sickness absence system

The Government has published its response to Dame Carol Black and David Frost CBE's independent review of the sickness absence system in Great Britain, confirming that it will, among other things, remove the statutory requirement on employers to maintain sick pay records. The range of measures set out in the Government's response aims to support people with health conditions both stay in and return to work. 

The Government's response to the recommendations in the review, "Health at work - an independent review of sickness absence" (PDF format, 1.55MB) (on the Department for Work & Pensions website), confirms that it will:

  • establish a health and work assessment and advisory service to make occupational health advice more readily available to employers and employees enabling them to manage sickness absence better;
  • abolish record-keeping obligations for statutory sick pay to allow employers to keep records in a less prescriptive manner for a shorter period of time;
  • abolish the Percentage Threshold Scheme, which compensates employers for higher-than-average sicknesss absence, as this scheme reduces incentives to manage absence; and
  • work with education, local government and health employers to ensure all public-sector employers publish an annual average working days lost metric, and urge them to consider a review of their occupational sick pay regime. 

The Government has confirmed that the new health and work assessment and advisory service will be delivered in 2014 and will include a state-funded assessment by occupational health professionals for employees who are absent due to sickness for four weeks or more. Further, the service will provide advice for employers, employees and GPs throughout the sickness absence process, and a case management facility for the minority of employees with complex needs who require ongoing support to enable their return to work. 

Also 

XpertHR legal timetable and HR calendar Keep up to date with new legislation, consultations and HR developments in 2013 with XpertHR's legal timetable and HR calendar. 

The XpertHR policies and documents section provides a model short-term sickness absence policy and a model long-term sickness absence policy. 

Line manager briefing on short-term sickness absence The XpertHR line manager briefing section aims to help line managers understand the employment laws that impact on short-term absence, their practical implications and how to manage short-term absenteeism effectively. Another briefing in the section, the line manager briefing on long-term sickness absence, deals with the management of long-term sickness absence.