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Self certification - yes or no?

Hi everyone,

I'm having a bit of a battle about absence forms and people complaining about being asked to self certify if they are not at work. We send out absence forms for everyone who is absent during their normal working hours, unless it has been agreed in advance that they will use overtime to offset this. 

I am being told time and time again that it is causing people to stress out if they have to fill out a form when they're not in, especially if their absence has been agreed in advance. I'm being told it's a wellbeing issue but no-one has ever been to me as HR Manager to query the forms or that they are being asked to complete them. Our Employee Handbook clearly states the below: 

If your absence lasts for less than 8 calendar days, on your return to work you must complete an Absence Self-Certification explaining the reason for your absence.   The Academy requires any absence of more than 7 calendar days to be certified by a ‘Fit Note’ (Forms Med 3 or Med 10) and sent to the HR Manager immediately. Uncertified absence may be treated as misconduct and may not be paid.  

I'm after a bit of guidance as to how other schools handle absence reporting and if there is a threshold system in place for self certification before I go back to SLT

many thanks in advance

Kellyanne

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  • I have to say that I've often wondered what the point is of self-certification forms. If you have a clear method for an employee to report their absence, and have a return to work meeting when they come back, I'm not sure what value having a self-cert form adds other than to make the process of calling in sick more bureaucratic and stressful for everyone involved.
  • In reply to Robey:

    There's a clear reporting method but due to the nature of timetabling and team size, return to work meetings are only undertaken after long term absence or if there is a pattern causing concern
  • Could you clarify this statement in your post please? "especially if their absence has been agreed in advance"

    Self certification is for sickness absence and I am struggling a bit to see how this can be agreed in advance 9possibly if someone is having an operation i guess).

    It makes me wonder if you are applying it to other absences such as Dr or hospital appointments, or for other reasons in which case I can understand the pushback from people.

    I was also a bit confused as you started with saying that you are being told 'time and time again' that is is causing people stress, but a bit later say that no-one has been to you as HR Manager to query it?
  • In reply to Teresa:

    Hi Teresa,
    We use self certification forms for sickness related absence and non-sickness related absence. Two separate forms but handled in the same manner as the majority of our absences are for those.
    The time and time again bit relates to the Principal's PA who comes to see me to say people are complaining to her. Not once has anyone spoken to me, or asked for clarification about the process at all.
    With pre-planned absences, like hospital appointments or time off for personal or child related reasons, we still send the forms so we can accurately capture why people have been absent.
    I'm struggling to find a way forward that works for everyone without people complaining
  • In reply to Kellyanne:

    I have to say, in our school we wouldn't ask anyone to self-cert except for sickness absence. For absence authorised in advance by the Head, the absence is simply entered into our HR database under the relevant absence type - and the system will only send self-certs where the absence is sickness. Surely if it's been pre-approved, then you know what the absence is for already?
  • In reply to Nina Waters:

    I completely agree but it's the occasions when people call in late or for reasons other than sickness, like a child being unwell, that would then not be included. I think because we've been doing it this way for so long I'm a little defensive of the system.
    I would be more than happy to record pre-approved absences in a different way and then only send forms for ad-hoc absence. But the people who complain about the forms, tend to be the ones who have called in ad-hoc anyway. I don't think there is any way to win!
  • In reply to Kellyanne:

    Just because the system has been in force for a long time doesn’t mean you should keep it. It shouldn’t be about “winning”.
  • In reply to David Perry:

    Absolutely agree, David.
  • I guess the question is what are the forms actually for? If it’s purely just to have a form filed away and to have followed the policy/procedure, then you could quite rightly question whether it’s still the right policy/procedure.

    Have the forms ever been unearthed once they have been filed away? Have they been / could they be a key bit of information in a capability or disciplinary process? Do they help to highlight of understand patterns of absence? Have they been used to help support anyone back to work from long term absence?

    Or do they just tick HR’s box, whilst achieving little else except annoying everyone?
  • In reply to Maya:

    Hi Maya,
    We do refer back to forms on the odd occasion to support with absence monitoring/disciplinary. We haven't had a capability in such a ling time but it would support with that too.
    We do also use the information staff give us on the forms to identify patterns etc.
    I've had a sleepless night about the process and I think I've got something to present to SLT for approval now. We have a system where people can log in and review their absences, so I think we could default to only asking for self-certification for ad-hoc sickness and the rest of the time absences can be logged on the system and an automated email sent to confirm with the staff member.
  • In reply to Kellyanne:

    due to the nature of timetabling and team size, return to work meetings are only undertaken after long term absence or if there is a pattern causing concern

    Well, first of all, that might be the underlying issue, here, when it comes to employees feeling stressed and pressured, rather than the surface issue of self-assessment forms.

    However, more practically, why can't an employee complete this form when they, you know, *return to work*? I presume the answer is because then they're doing it on the company's time rather than their own, and at that point I raise one eyebrow and point firmly in the direction of my first paragraph.
  • In reply to Robey:

    I have been trying to send out a wellbeing survey for months and keep getting blocked by senior leadership. I think a baseline assessment for why people don't want to do certain functions would be really helpful
  • In reply to Kellyanne:

    By far the best wellbeing survey you can do, Kellyanne, is to look at your population absence rate over time and your holiday use rate over time. It's an objective data source that can tell you a lot about how engaged and motivated by the business your people feel .
  • I think if the senior leadership team are blocking you sending out a well-being survey, you probably don’t need a survey to know that people are not thriving in the current working environment.

    Extrapolating a little bit from what you have said so far Kellyanne, it sounds like you’re battling on a few fronts here, possibly with some systemic issues that you might not be able to fix by changing some procedures?
  • In reply to Maya:

    Possibly, there are definitely wider issues. Hopefully I can work in the background to make changes