Attendance policy and procedure

You should always refer to the intranet or internet policy pages for the latest versions of these documents, however if you would like to create a PDF version of this policy, simply right-click anywhere on the page, click Print and select PDF from the printer options.

Introduction

At Lancashire County Council (LCC) we recognise the positive impact that a healthy and motivated workforce has in being able to successfully deliver a high-quality service. We are committed to promoting health and wellbeing and supporting every employee to achieve good attendance and be productive at work.

Whilst we recognise you may be prevented from attending work through injury or illness on occasion, absence of any length can have an impact on the team and the service you work within. As such, it is important we have appropriate procedures in place to enable absence to be managed effectively across the council.

Every instance of sickness absence is unique and any action taken to manage your absence and/or support you will be based on your individual circumstances, the nature of your role and the service you work within.

If you are not well enough to work, it is essential you engage with your manager or an appropriate manager, throughout the period of absence, as your ongoing discussions and updates will enable your manager to determine what support to provide to you, what steps to take to manage your absence and over what timeframe.

Scope

This policy applies to all council employees on LCC terms and conditions, excluding teaching and non-teaching staff employed by schools and employees who transferred to the council in accordance with TUPE regulations and who remain on their previous terms and conditions of employment.

Any sickness absence during the probationary period will need to be reported through the absence reporting procedure but the management of the absence will be handled under our Probation policy and procedure.

This policy covers instances of sickness absence and time off for medical appointments. It does not cover absences for any other reason, such as emergency time off for dependants or annual leave.

Responsibilities

You will

• Take personal responsibility for your health, safety and wellbeing. 

• Attend work when you are fit to do so.

• Follow the absence reporting procedure and provide the correct absence certification if you are not well enough to attend work.

• Maintain regular and meaningful contact with your manager whilst absent due to injury or illness.

• Engage with the absence management and monitoring procedures, including attending all meetings and Occupational Health appointments.

• Refrain from any activities outside work that are incompatible with your illness/condition or that may delay your recovery, including undertaking work in a second job, whether it is paid or unpaid/voluntary.

• Take up any support identified to assist your recovery and a return to work.

Managers will

• Promote a culture of good attendance and take responsibility for monitoring sickness absence levels. 

• Comply with and instigate the procedures for managing attendance set out in this policy. 

• Act fairly and consistently when applying the procedures.

• Take appropriate action to manage and progress sickness absence cases.

• Maintain regular and meaningful contact with you throughout your period of absence.

• Support you if you are absent due to injury or illness and, where appropriate, aim to identify ways in which to assist you to return to work and/or improve your attendance in the future.

• Record all sickness absence accurately on Oracle Fusion immediately after being informed of the start and end date of an absence.

• Conduct return to work discussions with you following every period of sickness absence.

People Services will

• Provide support and guidance to managers on the implementation and application of this policy.

• Regularly review and update this policy.

Absence reporting procedure

If you are not well enough to work, you must contact your manager before your work start time to notify them of the reason for absence, the expected length of absence and any work that needs to be picked up to allow your manager to make contingency / operational / business arrangements and/or arrange cover. You are required to keep your manager updated throughout the sickness absence on your progress and likely return to work date.

It is expected that you will report your absence and maintain contact with your manager by telephone to allow proper discussion to take place, unless an alternative method has been agreed with your manager.

You can self-certify for the first seven calendar days of sickness absence, by completing the return-to-work form with your manager. However, you must obtain a fit note to certify your absence from the eighth calendar day onwards of any absence and for the remainder of your absence.

Absence management procedure

Contact arrangements

During periods of absence, your manager will agree suitable contact arrangements with you and use the information you provide in relation to your health and recovery to determine the most appropriate course of action to manage your absence and support you to return to work. It is therefore important that you engage with your manager throughout the absence.

Any action taken will be based on the nature of your injury, illness, length of absence and the role or service you work in, but may include:

• an Occupational Health referral

• a risk assessment 

• a wellness action plan;

• a phased return to work and/or temporary adjustments;

• reasonable adjustments if you have a disability or may meet the definition in connection with the absence;

• redeployment; or

• ill health retirement.

Welfare visits

If you have been absent for a prolonged period, your manager may arrange a welfare visit with you to ensure they are offering support as needed, to receive updates in relation to your health and identify any potential steps that could be taken to aid a return to work.

The welfare visit could be an agreed catch up at your home, a mutually convenient location or via video conferencing where appropriate.

Occupational Health referrals

Depending on the reason, length or frequency of sickness absence, your manager may talk to you about whether it would be helpful to seek advice from Occupational Health (OH), or whether you both feel there's already enough information available from your GP / consultant. The purpose of an OH referral is to provide independent advice on your health and fitness to work, respond to specific questions, provide guidance on how workplace adjustments might assist you to return and indicate relevant timeframes for potential recovery.

If your manager considers it would be helpful to make a referral to OH, you are required to attend the appointment; doing so forms part of your contract of employment with the council and is a condition of you receiving sick pay. We hope you will see the benefits of obtaining such advice, however if you choose not to engage with the referral or to allow OH to provide your manager with feedback, any decisions on your absence and, if applicable, your continued employment with the council, will be taken based on the information available at that time.

Following the appointment, OH will prepare a report for your manager to consider. The report will offer advice to inform your manager's decision-making, but it is not intended to prevent managers from taking reasonable action to manage your absence or making appropriate decisions for the service. Your manager will discuss the content of the report with you to understand your thoughts on the most appropriate course of action, but it is ultimately for your manager to determine whether any OH recommendations or adjustments are reasonably operationally achievable based on service requirements.

Absence review meeting (for prolonged absences)

If you have been absent for a prolonged period and it becomes clear that there is no realistic prospect of you returning to work within a reasonable timeframe and the service is not able to sustain your absence any longer, your manager will ask you to attend an absence review meeting. The purpose of the review meeting is to consider whether there are any further options, including reasonable adjustments, that can be explored to support you to return to work, before the case is referred to an attendance hearing.

An appropriate manager will chair this meeting, and you can be accompanied by a work colleague, trade union representative or an official employed by a trade union if you wish.

Returning to work procedure

When you are well enough to come back to work, your manager or supervisor will hold a return-to-work discussion with you to consider the practicalities of your return and any support you may need. The discussion will normally take place on your first day back in work, however if this is not possible, your manager will arrange a suitable time to follow up with you. The return to work form that is completed also serves to self-certify your absence and so it is important that you have met with and completed this form with your manager.

Returning to work early

If you wish to return to work earlier than the end date stated on your fit note, you will need to discuss this with your manager prior to returning to allow them to consider the implications for you and the service. Provided you are fit to return to work, your manager may agree to an earlier return and will catch up with you at appropriate intervals to review your progress. However, if there are concerns that you may not yet be well enough to return to work, your manager may take further advice from OH and/or People Services and/or advise you to obtain further medical advice from your GP/consultant to verify your fitness to return.

Your health and wellbeing are a priority and returning before you are ready to do so may have a detrimental impact on your health in the long term. It may also not be in the best interest of your colleagues or service users for you to return to work before you are well enough to do so, particularly if doing so could put them at risk. It is important you work with your manager and your GP or any other relevant health professionals, to ensure that at the point of your return you are well enough to do so safely.

Phased return to work

A phased return may be an option to support you back into work if you have been absent for a prolonged period and feel you would struggle to return to your normal hours straight away. It involves gradually increasing the hours you work over a fixed period and should not usually last longer than four weeks.

If a phased return is recommended by OH or your GP/consultant, you should discuss the matter with your manager who will consider how it could be accommodated. Your manager may need further advice or information from OH or People Services before agreeing to a phased return.

During a phased return, you will receive your normal rate of pay for the hours you work. You should agree with your manager how the remaining time will be covered; this can either be by annual leave, sickness absence or a combination of both. In the case of sickness absence, you will receive any remaining sick pay entitlement for up to a maximum of four weeks, and the full period must be covered by a fit note. 

If you think you need a longer phased return than four weeks, you will need to talk to your manager who will consider your request in line with service needs. If a longer phased return is agreed, the non-worked time can be covered by annual leave, unpaid leave, sickness absence or a combination of these.

Temporary adjustments to support a return to work

Temporary adjustments, such as altered hours or amended duties, may be helpful in supporting you to return to work following a prolonged period of absence. The adjustments can be flexible, but we would not normally expect them to last longer than four weeks.   

If you are returning to work following a prolonged period of absence and consider temporary adjustments would be helpful, you should discuss this with your manager who will assess whether the adjustments can be accommodated operationally. You and your manager could also consider any additional information provided by OH as part of this discussion.

Sickness triggers and stage meetings

Trigger levels

There are trigger levels in place to help manage absence and highlight when management action is needed. The trigger levels are as follows:

• Any absence(s) within a rolling 12-month period which amounts to two of your working weeks;

• Three instances of absence in any rolling 12-month period; or

• Where there is reasonable cause for concern about patterns of absence when looking at your absence history.

All pregnancy-related absence will be excluded from the trigger levels but will be managed under this procedure.

If you reach any of the trigger levels your manager will review the circumstances of the absence(s), including whether any of the absences are disability-related, and they may ask you to attend a stage meeting. 

Stage meetings

The purpose of a stage meeting is to review your absence record, understand the reasons for absence and explore any underlying health, personal or work-related issues which may be contributing to your absence levels.

Stage meetings work sequentially as follows:

• If you reach the trigger level, you may be asked to attend a stage one meeting.

• If you do not achieve the required levels of improvement within the stage one review period, you will be asked to attend a stage two meeting.

• If you do not achieve the required levels of improvement within the stage two review period, you will be asked to an attendance hearing.

The manager chairing the stage meeting will inform you that your levels of absence are unsatisfactory and that improvement is required. They will explain the improvement expected of you and the length of the review period, for example that you are not expected to incur any more than X days or X instances of absence within the following X months. 

If you meet the required standard of improvement during the review period, no further action will be taken, and your manager will confirm this in writing. However, if you do not, the next stage of the procedure may be applied.

It is also important to note that if your attendance levels deteriorate during the 12-months after the end of the review period, even if you have not reached any of the trigger levels, your manager may apply the next stage of the procedure, i.e. the process will not restart from the beginning.

Attendance hearings

Whilst we will support you during sickness absence, repeat or continued absence cannot be sustained indefinitely. As such, you may be asked to an attendance hearing in the following circumstances:

• You are repeatedly absent and your attendance levels have not improved during the stage two process; or

• You have been absent for a prolonged period and there is no prospect of a return to work in the foreseeable future.

The purpose of an attendance hearing is to consider the current position and how this affects your ongoing employment with the council. As such, one of the potential outcomes of the hearing is that you could be dismissed.

Medical information prior to an attendance hearing

It is important that we understand any medical information relevant to your absence(s) prior to the attendance hearing as this will enable the manager chairing the hearing to make an informed decision.

Prior to the hearing your manager will ask you to review the latest available medical information, for example the most recent OH report or information from your GP / consultant and confirm whether the information is still up to date. If you confirm that the information is still correct, the manager chairing the hearing will consider this as part of the attendance hearing. However, if there has been a change in your circumstances since that information was provided or it has been a while since medical information was obtained, your manager may make a referral to OH prior to the attendance hearing.

Attendance hearing process

Attendance hearings will be chaired by an appropriate manager, advised by a People Services representative.

You will be asked to attend the hearing in writing with a minimum of five working days' notice, and you will be provided with a copy of all the documentation that will be considered at the hearing.

When a hearing has been scheduled, you must take all reasonable steps to attend. If you are prevented from attending the hearing due to health reasons, you can seek to agree an alternative date within five working days of the original hearing date with your manager. If you are not well enough to attend the rescheduled hearing, you can submit a written statement for the manager chairing the hearing to consider.  

You have the right to be accompanied at the hearing by a work colleague, trade union representative or official employed by a trade union. If your companion is unavailable on the proposed date, you may suggest an alternative date within five working days of the original hearing date.

If a hearing has been re-arranged at your request but you do not attend, a decision on your continued employment with the council may be made in your absence based on any written submissions available, and the outcome will be confirmed in writing within five working days.

During the hearing, the manager who referred the case will present a record of your sickness absence for the manager chairing the hearing to consider.

You will be given the opportunity to respond to this and present any further information that will assist the hearing manager to understand your illness / condition and/or reasons for your sickness absence levels. The manager chairing the hearing, the People Services representative and the manager who referred the case will have the opportunity to ask you questions about the information you have presented.

The manager who referred the case will be asked to sum up, then you will be given the opportunity to do the same before the meeting adjourns to enable the manager chairing the hearing to consider the outcome.

You will be verbally notified of the outcome as soon as reasonably practicable following the hearing, and this will normally be confirmed to you in writing within five working days of the verbal notification.

Appeals

If you are dismissed at an attendance hearing, you have a right of appeal which will likely fall into the categories that either the absence management procedure was not followed correctly or that relevant information was not considered.

You must submit your grounds for appeal in writing to the manager named in the outcome letter within five working days of the date you receive the letter. It is important that you set out the grounds on which you are appealing so that the manager considering your appeal can prepare to address these at the hearing.

A senior manager who has not previously been involved in the decision-making process will chair the appeal hearing, advised by a People Services representative.

The manager considering the appeal will invite you to a hearing without unreasonable delay; this will normally be held within 20 working days of receipt of your appeal. If it is not possible to achieve this timeframe, this will be explained to you and the date of the hearing will be confirmed.

The appeal hearing is your opportunity to talk through your grounds of appeal, but it is not a repeat of the original hearing. The manager hearing the appeal will consider evidence presented at the original hearing which is relevant to the grounds of appeal or any new information relating to your absence(s) that could have had a bearing on the outcome but was not available at the time.

After the appeal hearing, the manager will notify you in writing of their decision without unreasonable delay. This decision is final and there will be no further right of appeal.

Other procedural matters

Formal meetings

A formal meeting is a meeting that may impact on your continued employment with the council, for example a stage meeting, absence review meeting, attendance hearing or appeal hearing.

Under this procedure, you have the right to be accompanied at any formal meetings by a work colleague, trade union representative or an official employed by a trade union. The work colleague, trade union representative or official employed by a trade union can present your case and respond to any views expressed at the meeting on your behalf but cannot answer questions on your behalf or prevent others from presenting or explaining their position / information.

Recording meetings

We will take a written record of the key points of all meetings conducted under this procedure. This will be done either by the person holding the meeting or by an additional person arranged by us to take notes.

We do not allow meetings to be recorded as this could make those present feel uncomfortable and therefore less willing to participate. Any breach of this provision may lead to disciplinary action, which could include dismissal.

Notes taken by the manager/note taker will not be verbatim detailed minutes, therefore, if you wish to make your own notes during the meeting, you are welcome to do so.

Confidentiality

Any information received during the absence management procedure will be treated in the strictest confidence and any records will be kept in accordance with data protection legislation.

Sick pay

If you are unable to work due to injury or illness, you may be entitled to receive sick pay. However, this is conditional upon you following and engaging in the procedure and there may be situations where sick pay may be withheld.

 We apply the sickness scheme set out within your national conditions of service (for example, the National Joint Council for Local Government Service sickness scheme). If you have TUPE transferred to us, please refer to your terms and conditions for details of your sick pay entitlement. If you require further information about your sick pay entitlement, please contact AskHR.

 Sick pay is calculated on a rolling 12-month basis from the start date of absence and is made up of two elements; occupational sick pay (OSP) as set out below and statutory sick pay (SSP). SSP is payable at the appropriate rate, irrespective of your actual earnings, during the period of absence for up to a maximum of 28 weeks. On the expiry of 28 weeks’ SSP, Payroll will provide you with the appropriate notification forms so that you can claim any government benefits.

Support where sick pay entitlement is exhausted

If you reach a point where you have exhausted your sick pay entitlement, you may want to:

• Speak with the Welfare Rights Service (01772 533633 between 10:00-12:00 and 14:00-16:00 Monday-Friday or via email on wrsstakeholders@lancashire.gov.uk) for advice and guidance on benefits.

• Contact Citizen's Advice to see if you are entitled to any financial support.

• Explore options with your bank or building society, mortgage provider or landlord, such as payment holidays.

• Notify your critical illness cover provider, if applicable.

• Speak with your trade union, if you are a member, as they often have hardship funds in place for such situations.

• Refer to our financial wellbeing guide on the intranet for useful links and advice on managing your finances.

Withholding Occupational Sick Pay (OSP)

You need to be aware that OSP is conditional and may be withheld, for example where:

• There is evidence that your absence is not due to you being unwell.

• You do not engage with your manager or the absence management procedure, including attending OH appointments.

• You do not follow the absence reporting and certification requirements of the procedure.

• There are patterns to your absence that are of cause for concern, for example, absences immediately before or after a weekend or bank holiday, or during sporting events.

• There is a genuine belief that you have reported in sick because your annual leave request was denied.

• You choose to participate in any activity that is prejudicial to your recovery.

If a decision is taken to withhold your OSP, the reason(s) will be explained to you, and you will have a right of appeal against the decision. If the manager considering the appeal decides that the grounds for withholding OSP were justified, you will forfeit the right to any further payment in respect of that period of absence. If the manager upholds the appeal, OSP will be applied.

Possible actions related to withholding OSP

We also reserve the right to consider action in line with the disciplinary procedure where:

• There is reasonable belief that your actions may hinder or prolong your recovery.

• Your conduct during your absence conflicts with what you have told us about your health or recovery.

• There is repeated abuse of the OSP provision.

Reasonable adjustments to support employees with a disability

The aim of reasonable adjustments is to remove any barriers preventing an employee with a disability from returning to or continuing to work.

A disability is defined as a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ (i.e. it has lasted or is likely to last for 12 months or more) negative effect on your ability to do normal daily activities. Examples of ‘normal daily activities’ include mobility, speech, memory, ability to concentrate, learn or understand.

If you have a disability that affects your ability to carry out your role, you may wish to discuss reasonable adjustments with your manager.

You should refer to our reasonable adjustment guide.

Where a disabled employee reaches an absence trigger point, we will first consider whether reasonable adjustments should be made before starting any formal action.

Sometimes it may not be possible to accommodate adjustments. In these circumstances, your manager will explain the reasons why the adjustments cannot be accommodated and discuss the next steps with you.

Access to work

Access to Work (ATW) is a government scheme that helps people with a disability or health condition by providing practical support and covering extra costs that make work easier. ATW only pays for things the council wouldn’t normally provide—usually specialist or expensive items. Before applying, you should explore reasonable adjustments with your manager to check if some items are available through the council first.

ATW could give you a grant to help pay for things like:

• specialist equipment and assistive software

• support workers, like a BSL interpreter, a job coach or a travel buddy

• costs of travelling to work, if you cannot use public transport

• adaptations to your vehicle so you can get to work

• physical changes to your workplace

You must have a disability, illness or health condition that means you need support to do your job or get to and from work. You do not need to be diagnosed with a condition to apply.

This process is employee led; your manager cannot refer you to ATW, nor will they receive any information or advice from ATW. Your manager will provide whatever support they can, although ATW can only be commissioned by yourself. As such, if you feel that the type of work you undertake is affected by a disability or health condition that has lasted or is likely to last for 12 months or more, and/or OH have suggested equipment, travel assistance or support to facilitate a return to work which we would not normally provide, you should contact ATW to check whether you meet the criteria for help.

Risk assessments and wellness action plans

As part of your return to work, your manager may suggest exploring the following options:

• Risk assessments for employees with a health condition / disability to help ensure the workplace is safe and identify any reasonable adjustments.

• Stress risk assessments to help identify potential causes of stress within the workplace and identify any necessary action to reduce stress. 

• Wellness action plans to guide discussions about what keeps an individual well at work and which situations can trigger them to become unwell, as well as helping individuals who are recovering from an illness.

Redeployment

Redeployment where an employee is absent

If you are not well enough to return to your substantive role but you are well enough to continue working in some other capacity, OH may recommend exploring redeployment to another role.

In these circumstances, your manager will first consider if there are any suitable alternative roles within the service, taking into account your capabilities, skills and relevant experience. If there are no redeployment opportunities within the service, your manager will contact People Services for you to be granted priority access to current vacancies on Oracle Recruitment Cloud for 12 weeks, which will enable you to be considered ahead of other job applicants for the job.

Opportunities for redeployment are dependent upon vacancies that exist within the council at the time.

It is important to note that by entering the redeployment process, you are accepting that you are not considered fit to return to work in your substantive role, even where adjustments have been made, and this therefore has implications for your continuing employment with us. As such, if you do not secure a suitable alternative role by the end of the 12-week search period, an attendance hearing will be arranged where a decision on your continued employment will be made. One of the potential outcomes of the hearing is that you could be dismissed from your employment with the council.

For further information on redeployment, please refer to the Priority Access to Vacancies policy and procedure (available on the intranet).

Redeployment where an employee is in work

If you are in work but are struggling to carry out the full remit of your role due to a health condition or disability, your manager may meet with you to discuss whether the disability retention process might be applicable in your case.

Ill health retirement

If OH consider the nature of your illness / condition is likely to mean you will be unfit for any work in the foreseeable future, and you meet the qualifying pension scheme criteria, they may suggest exploring ill health retirement. For further information on this, please refer to the Ill Health Retirement policy.

Other leave and sickness absence

You will continue to accrue annual leave during periods of sickness absence.

You are encouraged to use annual leave, including pre-arranged annual leave,  while you are absent due to sickness, as you would if you were in work. This may be particularly helpful where the leave would assist in your recovery, if you are reaching the end of your sick pay entitlement, or where you are returning to work from absence and wish to use some leave to break up the week(s) to help ease you back in.

If you are prevented from taking annual leave while absent because of the nature of your illness / condition, you may be able to take the leave at another time upon your return to work.

Please be aware that if you are absent due to sickness at the end of the annual leave year and you have more than the statutory annual leave limit remaining (i.e. 20 days for full-time employees who work five days per week, or the pro rata equivalent for employees who work part-time), you will lose the difference. For example, if you work full-time hours and have 28 days' annual leave remaining, you will be able to carry over 20 days' leave into the new leave year, but you will lose the remaining eight days. This will not include any banked leave you may have.

Pre-arranged annual leave

If you are prevented from taking pre-arranged annual leave due to illness, or you fall ill during a period of annual leave, your manager may approve a request to treat some (or all) of the period of annual leave as sickness absence. However, requests will only be agreed where you have followed the absence reporting procedure and provided satisfactory medical evidence (i.e. a fit note or hospital discharge paperwork) covering the dates you were ill.

If you have pre-arranged leave and you use the leave for the purpose it was intended, for example to go on holiday or to visit family, the time will remain recorded as annual leave. Taking annual leave during a period of sickness absence does not break the period of sickness absence, i.e. it will be recorded as a single instance of sickness absence rather than two instances either side of your annual leave.

Time off for medical appointments

If you need to take time out of work to attend a medical appointment, please ensure you give your manager as much notice as possible and provide any written confirmation of appointments if requested.

You should endeavour to book medical appointments outside working hours wherever possible. If this cannot reasonably be arranged, appointments should be made at a time that is least disruptive to service delivery, for example at the beginning or end of your working day if possible.

Where doctor, dental, hospital or optician appointments cannot reasonably be arranged outside working hours, you should agree with your manager how the lost time will be made up. These appointments will not be regarded as sickness absence and therefore do not need to be recorded on Oracle Fusion and will not count towards the sickness trigger levels.

Hospital admission

If you are admitted to hospital for emergency treatment or planned surgery (for example, joint replacement or hernia repair), and are unable to work as a result, this would fall within the sickness absence provisions and the time off would be recorded as sickness absence.

Any time taken off for cosmetic or optional surgery, should be taken as annual or unpaid leave. If you suffer any complications or fall sick and are unable to attend work as a consequence of your cosmetic surgery, your absence will be treated as sickness absence, provided that you comply with our notification procedure and evidence requirements.

Antenatal appointments

If you require time off during working hours for antenatal care, please refer to the Maternity and Family Related Leave guide or to the special leave with pay provisions for prospective fathers / partners.

Fertility treatment

If you require time off during working hours for fertility treatment, you will receive your normal pay for the time you are not in work and you will not be expected to make up the lost time.

Sickness as a result of medical treatment

If you are unfit to work as a result of a medical appointment or procedure, you must notify your manager as soon as possible. Your absence will be recorded as sickness absence and sick pay provisions will apply. If the absence continues, you will need to follow the absence reporting procedure.

Accidents involving a third party

If you are unable to work due to an accident involving a third party, even if this happened outside work, you will need to refer to the recovery of sick pay third party accidents policy and ensure that you complete the accident / incident form at the earliest opportunity.

Additional support

If you have a disability or an underlying medical condition that affects your ability to undertake your role, or if you feel you are struggling with your health or attendance, we encourage you to be open with your manager. Talking about these matters early will enable us to support you to continue attending work and providing an effective service.

We recognise that the absence management procedure can be stressful and we encourage you to speak with your manager in the first instance if you have any questions or concerns, alternatively you can call AskHR on 01772 535355.

There is a wealth of useful resources and information to support you in keeping well on our dedicated health and wellbeing site, including:

• Support for mental health concerns and physical wellbeing.

• Guidance on continuing to work with a long-term health condition. 

• Tools and resources for managing stress, including stress risk assessments and wellness action plans.

We also have access to a comprehensive occupational health service, which, via manager referral, offers psychological wellbeing services including counselling and CBT, physiotherapy and other specialist services.

Alternatively, you may wish to reach out to our various support networks or you can contact your trade union if you are a member.

If you need extra support and guidance, remember we have an employee assistance programme, which gives you access to a 24/7 support helpline or live chat. Rest assured this is a completely confidential, independent helpline which is free to access.