Fit Notes are coming

The new Fit Note System, which comes into effect in april, puts the onus on employers to determine what a person returning from sick leave may be fit to do.

The GP will complete a computer-generated medical fit note indicating that the empoyee is either ‘unfit for work’ or ‘may be fit for some work taking account of the following advice’. Doctors are then told to list whether the employee would benefit from a phased return to work, altered hours, amended duties or workplace adaptations, but the note does not require them to go into detail regarding which activities an employee can carry out at work.

This is intended to encourage employers to initiate discussions with their employee, to consider what could help to achieve an early return to work, and whether or not any changes can be made. In the event of an employer not being able to facilitate a change or an adjustment, the advice given on the statement will be evidence that an individual has a health condition which prevents them carrying out their current role.
The maximum length of time the new fit note is for has been reduced from six to three months.

Warnings have been given that those without Occupational Health advice may struggle, and there will inevitably be disputes about what constitutes suitable work. Ben Willmott, senior public policy adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development was more positive about the changes. “It’s not going to be a sudden process, but, over a period of years, we expect this to lead to more people returning to work than would have done under the previous system,” he said. “It will provide a framework to encourage GPs to have a conversation about a phased return to work, prompting the employee to speak to their employer.”

Employers should already be stepping in when employees have been off sick for a period of time, using attendance policies, employee assistance programmes and Occupational Health to identify how the employee may be assisted and supported back into work.

The fit note is being introduced in a bid to cure the UK’s high sickness absence rates. In 2007, 172 million working days were lost to ill heath, according to Dame Carol Black’s report.