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Our Long Term Sick Absence Management Plan Template facilitates structured support for employees on extended sick leave, ensuring consistent management practices.
Step 1: Hold a formal stage 1 absence meeting
If your employee has been off for more than 4 weeks and there are no plans for an imminent return, you should invite them to a formal stage 1 absence meeting. Try to be flexible by offering to hold the meeting at their home and with a family member present or in a neutral location with a work colleague/friend if they wish. As this is a formal meeting, appropriate notice should be given to the employee and they should be offered the right to be accompanied. In this meeting you should:
Try to gain an understanding of the condition and how it impacts the employee’s ability to work.
Discuss what reasonable adjustments can be made
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For more value, this is also found in our Full library and Sick management templates toolkit
Our Long Term Sick Absence Management Plan provides a structured approach for managing employees who are on extended sick leave. It outlines clear procedures and guidelines for both managers and employees to follow, including communication protocols, return-to-work assessments, and support mechanisms.
The plan aims to ensure consistency and fairness in handling long-term sick absences while promoting the well-being and eventual return to work of affected employees.
By implementing this plan, organisations can effectively support employees during prolonged absences due to illness or injury, thereby reducing the impact on productivity and morale. The plan also helps mitigate legal risks associated with managing long-term sick leave by ensuring compliance with relevant employment laws and regulations.
Related HR resources and workflow
Explore the HR resources that may be relevant before and / or after using the Long term sick absence management plan, helping you understand the wider process, maintain appropriate documentation and follow a consistent approach.
Our Absence Review Meeting Script Template facilitates constructive discussions, identifying causes and solutions for improved attendance.
Our Long Term Sick Absence Review Meeting Invitation Script Template streamlines the process, ensuring timely and sensitive communication with employees.
Yes. This template has been designed for organisations of all sizes, including small businesses, charities and growing employers. It follows UK employment law best practice and can be adapted to suit your organisation.
Our templates are developed with UK employment legislation, Acas guidance and HR best practice in mind and are reviewed and updated as relevant requirements change. However, every employment situation is different, so the template should be adapted to the circumstances and checked against the employee's contract and your organisation's procedures before use.
Yes, we highlight the areas of the document that you need to update with your own details, and where you need to make decisions to suit your situation. This saves you time and ensures that you meet best practice.
Yes. Once purchased, you'll be able to download it instantly. Templates are provided in editable format (such as .doc or .xls) so you can customise them easily, and in PDF format for easy sharing.
If you're looking for broader support, we also offer toolkits and library bundles that include the Long term sick absence management plan template, along with other HR templates and policies for fully managing your situation. These may be more cost-effective if you need deeper advice.
AI can produce a document quickly, but effective HR documentation needs to be more than well-written words. It needs to reflect relevant UK employment law, HR best practice, practical considerations and the circumstances in which it will be used. These resources have been professionally developed around that wider HR context, drawing on extensive practical experience, rather than simply generating a generic document from a prompt.
Darryl Horn, Chartered HR Director
Darryl is a Chartered HR professional with over 25 years' experience in senior HR and employee relations roles.
He has extensive practical experience of managing sick management processes and founded hrdocbox to provide businesses with practical, professionally developed HR resources grounded in UK employment law and best practice.
"Darryl provides support and advice with excellent judgement, and has a strong understanding of people, policies and UK employment legislation."
"He is someone I trust; consistent, dependable, and committed to doing things properly."
Sick management toolkit
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