You record a sick day, arrange cover and leave the conversation until the employee returns. Each decision makes sense, but repeated short absences can leave you paying for cover without understanding what’s causing them.
Managing short-term sickness absence means keeping accurate records, speaking after every absence and considering support before formal action. A trigger point starts a review, rather than deciding its outcome.
Start with a process that gives managers clear actions and employees a fair opportunity to explain.
Key takeaways
1. Record short-term sickness absence consistently
Persistent short-term sickness absence means repeated brief periods away from work. There’s no universal number of days or episodes that makes attendance unacceptable.
Your absence policy should explain reporting requirements, sick pay, evidence, review points and formal stages. Apply it consistently, while allowing for individual circumstances. This guidance covers Great Britain; Northern Ireland has separate employment and discrimination rules.
Record each absence’s dates, reason, notification and return-to-work discussion. Keep health information restricted to people who need it.
Look for patterns without assuming dishonesty
Repeated Monday absences may warrant a conversation, but the pattern doesn’t prove misconduct. Treatment schedules, recurring symptoms or workplace pressures may explain it.
Record operational effects too, including overtime, cancelled work and cover costs. You need evidence of the problem you’re trying to resolve.
Use scores to prompt questions
The Bradford Score gives greater weight to frequent absences than one continuous absence. It doesn’t explain their cause.
Our sickness absence management tools bring records, Bradford Scores and return-to-work forms together. Managers still need to assess the circumstances before taking action.
2. Keep evidence and sick pay separate from attendance decisions
An employee can meet the evidence requirements and still need an attendance review. Equally, reaching a review point doesn’t remove statutory sick pay entitlement.
Self-certification and fit notes
Employees can self-certify for the first seven calendar days, including weekends and non-working days. Absences lasting longer normally require a fit note from a doctor or another authorised registered healthcare professional.
GOV.UK’s fit-note guidance explains the two outcomes: “not fit for work” or “may be fit for work”.
The latter can recommend reduced hours, altered duties or a phased return. Discuss what you can accommodate. If suitable changes can’t be agreed, the employee is treated as not fit for work.
Statutory Sick Pay in October 2026
Since 6 April 2026, eligible employees receive SSP from their first full qualifying day of sickness. There are no waiting days or minimum earnings threshold.
Under the government’s SSP calculation rules, the weekly rate for 2026/27 is £123.25 or 80% of average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.
SSP lasts up to 28 weeks across the relevant absence and linked periods. Absences eight weeks or less apart can link, so returning briefly doesn’t automatically restart entitlement.
Contractual sick pay follows your scheme’s terms. Our guidance on Statutory Sick Pay eligibility covers reporting and entitlement in more detail.
3. Hold a return-to-work meeting after every absence
A single day’s sickness still deserves a conversation. Keep it private, proportionate and focused on whether the employee can return to work safely.
The line manager should confirm the dates and reason, ask whether anything at work contributed, and discuss support. Explain any attendance concerns without turning a routine meeting into an unexpected disciplinary hearing.
These conversations help identify underlying issues before separate absences become a continuing problem. Ask about workload, working relationships and recurring symptoms, rather than asking only whether the employee feels better.
Agree a proportionate arrangement to keep in touch during any further absence. Daily calls aren’t automatically appropriate, particularly where contact could worsen someone’s condition.
Record agreed actions and give someone responsibility for completing them. Our return-to-work forms help keep that discussion alongside the absence record.
4. Consider disability and pregnancy before applying triggers
Treating every absence identically can create discrimination risk. Consistency means following a fair process that recognises different legal protections.
Make reasonable adjustments for disability
Under the Equality Act 2010, employers must make reasonable adjustments where they know, or reasonably ought to know, that an employee is disabled and disadvantaged.
Acas explains disability-related absence can include illness, medical or hospital appointments, treatment, therapy and recovery from treatment.
Adjustments may include altered hours, different duties, disability leave or excluding some disability-related absence from trigger calculations. There’s no single adjustment suitable for everyone.
Occupational health can advise on likely recurrence, work restrictions and suitable changes. With the employee’s consent, you may request a focused medical report on issues relevant to the job and handle it confidentially.
For a phased return, agree hours, duties, pay arrangements and a review date. Put the arrangement in writing.
Record pregnancy-related sickness separately
Pregnancy-related sickness must be recorded separately and mustn’t count against the employee in attendance decisions or redundancy selection.
Dismissal connected to pregnancy is automatically unfair from the first day of employment. A standard attendance warning can also create discrimination risk if it relies on pregnancy-related absence.
Remove protected absences from the assessment before deciding whether formal action is appropriate.
5. Hold a formal review when concerns continue
A policy threshold should prompt a closer look at attendance. The attendance policy should explain that absence trigger points prompt consideration of the circumstances, not dictate an outcome. Acas’s absence-trigger guidance supports review points that allow employers to consider causes and appropriate support.
Review the record before choosing an outcome
For an employee reaching your trigger point, first confirm the dates and reasons. Separate pregnancy-related absence, assess disability adjustments and review previous support.
Then invite the employee to a meeting. Explain the concern, provide the attendance record and describe possible outcomes in advance.
Give them time to explain, challenge inaccuracies and suggest changes. Follow applicable accompaniment rights and your policy, and consider additional support where needed.
The outcome might be further medical advice, workplace changes, monitoring or a formal warning. Reaching the threshold doesn’t make a warning inevitable.
Agree expectations and a review date
Set out the attendance improvement sought, the review period and the support you’ll provide. Keep expectations realistic in light of medical advice.
Where a warning is justified, explain its duration and what further action could follow, including dismissal where applicable. Confirm the outcome and appeal arrangements in writing.
An attendance target that ignores an agreed disability adjustment can undermine the fairness of the whole review.
If you suspect dishonesty or a reporting breach, investigate that separately. Genuine illness shouldn’t become misconduct because it causes operational difficulty.
6. Assess dismissal on its facts and process
Persistent absence can eventually justify dismissal, but a policy threshold alone won’t establish fairness. The employer needs a potentially fair reason and a reasonable decision-making process.
Capability and some other substantial reason
Capability concerns whether ill health prevents someone doing their job. Persistent short-term “unsatisfactory attendance” can also fall under “some other substantial reason”, often shortened to SOSR.
The NUJ’s sickness dismissal guidance, drawing on Thompsons, explains this distinction and the need to review attendance fairly.
For long-term sickness absence, assess the prospect of a return using medical evidence, and consider adjustments, alternatives and the business impact. Give the employee a chance to make representations and warn that dismissal may follow if attendance doesn’t improve. A capability dismissal may be potentially fair only after a reasonable process and consideration of the relevant circumstances.
Explain the final decision, notice entitlement and right of appeal. Get employment law advice before dismissing where health or discrimination issues arise.
Employment protection depends on the claim
As at October 2026, ordinary unfair dismissal generally requires two years’ continuous employment.
The government’s unfair dismissal reform guidance states that this falls to six months for dismissals taking effect on or after 1 January 2027.
Disability discrimination claims have no service qualifying period. Many automatically unfair dismissal protections also apply without two years’ service.
Short service therefore doesn’t remove tribunal risk. Probation doesn’t suspend those rights either.
Frequently asked questions
Can an employee be dismissed for two sick days or while holding a fit note?
Two days’ sickness doesn’t automatically justify dismissal. A fit note doesn’t prevent dismissal either, but it provides medical evidence that your process must consider.
The reason, attendance history, applicable protections and fairness of the process matter. There’s no rule allowing dismissal simply because someone reaches a particular number of sick days.
How should you manage an absence that becomes long-term?
There’s no statutory maximum period of long-term sickness absence before an employer can consider dismissal. Move away from short-term attendance targets when an absence becomes continuous.
A meeting after more than four weeks, another a month later and a final review can provide structure. Those dates aren’t legal deadlines. Consultation, medical evidence, adjustments and a warning about possible dismissal remain necessary.
Dismissing without consulting the employee or warning that dismissal is likely is almost certainly unfair.
Can employees take sick leave for mental health?
Yes. Mental ill health can make someone unable to work, and the usual reporting and evidence rules apply.
Consider whether work contributes and whether the condition could amount to a disability. Don’t require someone to struggle through work simply because their illness isn’t visible.
What happens when sick pay ends?
Issue SSP1 within the applicable deadline and explain any remaining contractual entitlement. The employee may qualify for Universal Credit or Employment and Support Allowance.
The end of sick pay doesn’t end employment. Any dismissal needs its own assessment and process.
Keep the record, support and decision together
Persistent absence needs a clear record, a conversation and action on the underlying cause. Documented judgement protects your business better than an automatic warning.
At HRoes, we’re employment law specialists, and our employment protection solution was created by award-winning lawyers. It brings human resources consultancy, software, learning and insurance-backed tribunal cover of up to £250,000 together, subject to policy terms and following our advice.
Book an intro call to discuss keeping your absence records, advice and decisions connected.