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The sickness absence forms a veterinary practice actually needs

Most practices have a sickness policy and no forms, so absence gets recorded in a rota, a WhatsApp message and somebody’s memory. This pack is the four documents that turn that into a record you can rely on, and a process that is fair to the person who was ill.

Editable Word document, free, emailed to you.

What is in it

• Self-certification form for absences of seven days or fewer, including the question most forms leave out: did anything about work cause or contribute to this?
• Return to work interview form. Six questions, ten minutes, held after every absence including a single day.
• Absence record and trigger tracker. A rolling twelve month view per person, with space to set your own trigger points.
• Long term absence review record for use from about four weeks, covering occupational health, adjustments, the pay position and the date of the next contact.

Why the return to work form is the important one

Holding a short return to work conversation after every absence is the single most effective thing a practice can do about absence, and it is not because it deters anyone. It is because it is the only reliable way to find out that the absence was caused by lifting, or by a rota pattern, or by a client who has been abusive for a month.

Practices that do this consistently find their absence figures fall without anybody being disciplined, because the causes surface while they are still fixable.

Updated for the April 2026 sick pay changes

Statutory sick pay changed on 6 April 2026 and most practice policies still describe the old position. Waiting days have gone, so SSP is payable from the first qualifying day rather than the fourth. The lower earnings limit has gone, so entitlement no longer depends on what someone earns. The rate is the lower of 80 per cent of average weekly earnings or the flat weekly rate.

In a veterinary practice that lands almost entirely on one group: the Saturday nurse, the bank receptionist, the eight hour a week part timer. Many of them used to get nothing and now qualify from their first day of sickness.

Where to be careful

Trigger points are a prompt for a conversation, never an automatic sanction, and two categories have to sit outside the count or you create a discrimination risk: absence related to pregnancy, and absence related to a disability, where adjusting the trigger is itself often a reasonable adjustment.

The pack is a starting point rather than legal advice. If you are dealing with a live long term absence, or anyone has used the phrase ill health capability, that is the point to take advice rather than to reach for a form. Read it alongside our guide to managing sickness absence and, for the pay side, the records you are now required to keep.