Why the new ‘sick’ note is not wholly fit for work

A Government programme to change the emphasis on staff sickness from what an employee can’t do to what they can do, has been slow to get off the ground because of a lack of preparation.

 

When the ‘sick’ note became the ‘fit’ note in April, it was heralded as ‘the biggest change in the area of employee absence for many years’.

 

The idea behind the Department of Work and Pensions initiative was to switch the emphasis from GPs signing people off as unfit for work with no other option, to advising employee and employer that he or she may be fit for work with support from their company.

 

The scheme relies on co-operation between GPs, occupational health services, advice and support for small businesses, access to better mental health services, fast-track therapeutic services and joined-up thinking in the NHS.

 

It also depends heavily on GPs being able to use an electronic system to replace handwritten, and often unreadable, sick notes. Up to now the majority of GPs have not been able to access the fit note forms on the computer because the systems have not been adjusted.

 

At the same time, the scheme’s route for the fit note  into the company is through a line manager, and experience shows that most line managers are not sufficiently trained to make the right decisions about the future company support for the sick person who is considered by a GP to be ‘fit for work with company help’.

 

Brian Hall, sales and marketing director at health insurer and employee benefits provider, BHSF, says the Coalition Government is committed to seeing the scheme succeed but admits there is no money.

 

“The benefits reform programme announced by the Government has focused ministerial eyes on the fit note system as a way of getting people back to work who may otherwise choose a lifestyle of absence”.

Brian says it’s all about assessment and case management based on the premise that work is a determinant of good health and as such absence should be minimised on health grounds.

 

“But the procedures and the co-operation between the various agencies responsible for making the new system work must be properly in place”.

 

He has had meetings with Dame Carol Black, National Director for Work and Health who launched the scheme in Birmingham earlier this year, and says that there is obvious enthusiasm for the project.

 

“Despite improvements in disease prevention, medicines and working environments, absence rates have not fallen”, said Brian.

 

“It is obvious that although employers welcome the scheme, GPs need to be won over and that their electronic systems must be able to cope with the procedures.

 

“There is a promise that this will be so by the end of this year, but even then there is no doubt that the ‘fit for work’ programme will take a long time to become fully effective”.