How Long Should a Phased Return to Work Last

A phased return can help an employee get back to work after sickness absence without immediately returning to their normal hours, workload or duties.

But one of the practical questions employers often face is how long that arrangement should continue. There is no set legal length for a phased return to work. ACAS says the length will depend on the employee's individual circumstances and should be agreed between the employer and employee. A fit note or Occupational Health report may also recommend a timescale, but the arrangement still needs to work in practice.

For some employees, a few weeks may be enough. Others may need longer. What employers should avoid is allowing a phased return to continue indefinitely without reviewing whether the employee is progressing towards their normal role and hours.

What Is a Phased Return to Work?

A phased return is a temporary arrangement that allows an employee to gradually build back up to their normal work. It might involve reduced hours, fewer working days, lighter duties or a reduced workload. The arrangement will depend on why the employee has been absent and what they are currently able to do.

The aim is usually to provide a bridge between sickness absence and a return to the employee's normal working arrangements.

Is There a Standard Length for a Phased Return?

There is no fixed legal maximum, but it should remain a genuinely temporary arrangement with clear review points.

Acas advises that the length should reflect the employee's individual circumstances and be agreed between the employer and employee. The arrangement should also be reviewed regularly rather than simply being put in place until a particular date and forgotten about.

Your own sickness absence policy may provide a usual framework for phased returns. This can help managers take a consistent approach, but there should still be room to consider individual circumstances.

What If Occupational Health Recommends a Longer Phased Return?

Occupational Health might recommend that an employee builds their hours back up over six or eight weeks, while the employer would normally expect a phased return to be shorter.

The recommendation should be properly considered, but it does not remove the need for the employer to consider whether the arrangement is workable.

The same applies to advice on a fit note. Government guidance describes a phased return as a gradual increase in duties or hours and confirms that fit-note advice is intended to support a discussion about what changes could help the employee return.

If the suggested arrangement cannot be accommodated exactly as recommended, the employer should consider whether a different arrangement could provide the necessary support. Where the employee may be disabled under the Equality Act 2010, reasonable adjustments will also need to be considered.

Should a Phased Return Have Review Dates?

Yes. A phased return should have a clear plan rather than simply allowing somebody to work reduced hours until they feel ready to increase them.

The plan might set out the employee's initial hours or duties, when these are expected to increase and when the arrangement will be reviewed.

Reviews also give both sides an opportunity to identify problems early. The employee may be progressing more quickly than expected, or they may be struggling at the current stage and need the plan reconsidered.

The original timescale does not have to be followed regardless of what happens. ACAS recognises that employers may need to extend a phased return or agree further changes.

What Is a Sickness Absence Trigger Point?

A sickness absence trigger point, sometimes called a review point, is a level of absence that prompts the employer to look at the employee's attendance. The important word is review.

Reaching a trigger should not automatically mean that the employee receives a warning or that formal action will follow. Instead, it gives the manager a clear point at which they should speak to the employee, understand what is behind the absence and decide whether anything further is needed.

That might include monitoring attendance, discussing support, making an Occupational Health referral or considering reasonable adjustments. In some cases, the review may result in no further action.

What Does ACAS Say About Sickness Absence Trigger Points?

ACAS recognises that employers may use trigger or review points to help manage absence. These can be based on the number of absences somebody has within a particular period or the length of their absence.

ACAS also recommends recording information such as how many absences an employee has had, how long each one lasted and the reasons for absence.

Importantly, ACAS advises employers to be flexible and sensitive to individual circumstances when using absence review points. That means the trigger can prompt the conversation without automatically determining what happens afterwards.

Should Sickness Triggers Use a Rolling 12-Month Period?

A rolling 12-month period means looking back at the employee's absence during the previous 12 months whenever their attendance is reviewed.

For example, if you were reviewing someone's attendance in September, you would look at their sickness absence since the previous September rather than only looking at absence since January. This avoids absence effectively resetting at the beginning of each calendar year.

There is no requirement to use a rolling 12-month period, but if you do, the sickness absence policy should explain how it works.

What Is a Reasonable Sickness Absence Trigger?

There is no single trigger point that is automatically reasonable for every employer. One organisation might use a certain number of days, another might focus more heavily on the number of occasions and another might use both.

The appropriate approach will depend on the organisation and how it manages attendance.

Whatever trigger you choose should have a clear purpose. It should help managers identify when attendance needs to be discussed rather than simply create a number that automatically results in action. Employees should also know what the trigger points are and what happens if they reach them.

Does Reaching a Sickness Trigger Mean the Employee Gets a Warning?

No. This is one of the most important things for managers to understand about sickness absence triggers.

Imagine two employees both reach the same trigger. One has had several unrelated minor illnesses. The other has recently been diagnosed with a long-term health condition and some of their absence is connected to that condition. The number may be identical, but the circumstances are very different.

A trigger tells the manager that attendance needs to be reviewed. The manager then needs to understand the reasons for the absence before deciding what happens next.

Depending on the circumstances, that could involve support, further monitoring, Occupational Health advice, reasonable adjustments or a more formal absence management process.

What Are the Advantages of Using Simple Absence Triggers?

The main advantage is clarity. Managers can see relatively easily when somebody has reached the organisation's review point, and employees can understand how their attendance is being monitored.

A system based on days and occasions can also be easier to explain than a Bradford Factor score. For example, saying that an employee has had five separate periods of sickness within the last 12 months immediately tells a manager something useful about their attendance pattern. A score of 250 means very little unless the manager understands how the Bradford Factor works.

Simple triggers can therefore achieve the same basic objective of prompting an attendance review without making the process unnecessarily complicated.

What Are the Disadvantages of the Bradford Factor?

The Bradford Factor deliberately gives much greater weight to frequent short-term absence. That can help identify patterns, but the score itself does not explain why the employee has been absent.

Several short absences can also produce a very high score relatively quickly because the number of occasions is multiplied by itself. The danger comes when managers start treating the score as the decision.

A Bradford Factor score might tell you that somebody's attendance warrants a conversation, but it cannot tell you whether they have a disability, whether their absence relates to pregnancy, whether reasonable adjustments are needed or whether there is another explanation that should be considered. Those questions still require management judgement.

Is a Simple Trigger System Better Than the Bradford Factor?

Not necessarily. Both are tools. The Bradford Factor may suit an organisation that specifically wants to give greater weight to repeated short-term absence.

Another employer may decide that monitoring total days and separate occasions gives managers all the information they need.

The better question is whether the system helps the organisation manage attendance fairly and consistently. If managers understand a straightforward trigger system and use it properly, there may be little benefit in adding a more complicated formula simply because other organisations use it.

What About Disability-Related Sickness Absence?

This is where applying any sickness trigger mechanically can cause problems. If an employee is disabled under the Equality Act 2010, some of their absence may be related to their disability.

Depending on the circumstances, the employer may need to consider reasonable adjustments to its normal absence management process.

That could include adjusting the employee's trigger point, disregarding some disability-related absence or recording particular absences separately. It does not mean every disability-related absence must automatically be ignored.

The employer needs to consider the employee's individual circumstances and what adjustments would be reasonable. This applies whether you use the Bradford Factor or a simpler trigger system.

What About Pregnancy-Related Sickness?

Employers should record pregnancy-related sickness separately so that it is not used to the employee's disadvantage when looking at their sickness absence record.

This is another reason managers should look behind an absence score or trigger before deciding what to do.

A system may automatically flag an employee as having reached a particular threshold, but the manager still needs to understand which absences have contributed to it.

What Should a Sickness Absence Policy Say About Trigger Points?

The policy should explain how sickness absence is monitored and when an employee's attendance will normally be reviewed. If you use days and occasions, explain both thresholds and the period over which they are measured.

If you use the Bradford Factor, employees and managers should understand how the score is calculated and what reaching particular levels actually means.

The policy should also allow individual circumstances to be considered rather than suggesting that every employee who reaches a particular number will automatically receive the same outcome. Managers then need to understand how to apply the policy in practice

Need HR Support?

If you're reviewing your sickness absence policy or struggling with repeated employee absence, BloomHR can help.

We provide practical HR support to small businesses, including sickness absence policies, absence review processes, Occupational Health referrals and advice on managing short and long-term absence fairly. Contact us for more information.