Sickness & Absence Management Policy

Notification of incapacity for work

If you are unable to work due to illness, injury or some unforeseen circumstance, you should notify the Executive Director, by calling their mobile phone, as early as you can on the first day of absence. It is not acceptable to report your absence by text message, email or to leave a message on the Company voicemail. If the Executive Director is not available, you should contact the Artistic Director and notify them. If you are due to attend a meeting etc., you should also let the client or colleague know that you are sick.

You should let the Executive Director know by 3pm if you will be returning the next day so that we can make plans to distribute your workload to other staff members. If your incapacity extends to more than seven days you are required to notify us of your continued incapacity once a week thereafter, unless otherwise agreed. The Company needs to know about your absence so that prompt attention can be given to temporary re-organisation of your duties. You should, therefore, inform your manager of any jobs that would have required completing on the days of absence to progress a project.

Evidence of Incapacity

If the period of absence is between 0.5 and 7 calendar days, you should complete a Self-Certification of Sickness form (See Appendix 2) This should be forwarded to your line manager on your return to work who will have a discussion with you. The line manager will forward the form to the Executive Team for processing. If your absence is for more than 7 calendar days inclusive of non-working days, you must provide a medical certificate (a fit note - a Statement of Fitness for Work) signed by a registered medical practitioner. This certificate should be forwarded to the Executive Team within one week of issue. Should you wish to return to work prior to the expiry of the period covered in the medical certificate, a note from your doctor is required stating that they consider you are fit to do so. Failure to submit medical certificates on time may result in the absence being treated as unauthorised and payment may be withheld.

Going on Holiday During Sick Leave

If you are on sick leave and wish to go away on holiday (possibly booked before your sickness), you must inform the Executive Team. SSP will be unaffected. Employees may request to take holiday leave while off sick in which case this should be put in writing. If approved, sick pay is suspended while holiday pay is instated.

Sickness During Annual Leave

If you are sick during annual leave, you should follow the normal sickness reporting procedure and any period of annual leave covered by a fit note will be treated as sickness absence and the annual leave reinstated. Any sickness not covered by a fit note remains as annual leave.

If you are sick, immediately prior to or immediately after, any period of annual leave or a Bank/Public Holiday, your manager may request that a fit note be provided for the absence. We will cover the cost of the fit note if required.

Failure to provide a fit note may mean that the absence is classed as unauthorised absence, which may result in disciplinary action being taken.

Accrual of Annual Holiday Entitlement During Sick Leave

Statutory annual leave is accrued while the employee is off work sick (no matter how long they’re off) and can be taken during sick leave.

Statutory sick pay

Employees may be entitled to Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) when you are absent from work due to sickness, provided you meet the criteria in the current SSP regulations. When you are absent for four or more consecutive days you will be paid SSP by us if you are eligible. This is treated like wages and is subject to normal deductions. The main features of the scheme are: • The first three days of incapacity are unpaid (called ‘waiting days’) • SSP is paid for up to 28 weeks. • Once SSP is exhausted, an employee normally transfers onto benefits paid directly by the Department for Work and Pensions • If two periods of sickness are separated by less than eight weeks (56 days), then they are linked and the employee need not serve the waiting days again. Where the circumstances of your incapacity are such that you receive or are awarded any sum by way of compensation or damages in respect of the incapacity from a third party, then any payment which we may have made to you because of the absence (including SSP) shall be repaid by you to us up to an amount not exceeding the amount of the compensation or damages paid by the third party and up to, but not exceeding, any amount paid by us. Self-employed freelancers and contractors will not receive payment for any days/sessions missed.

Other Employment

If in addition to your employment at Shaper/Caper you have other employment (or self-employment) in which you intend to continue working while being absent from Shaper/Caper due to illness, you must notify the Executive Team. Confirmation from your GP may be required to confirm that continuing to work in your other job is not detrimental to your recovery.

Absence

Your attendance is important to the business and is monitored. This policy identifies points at which the Company will take action if your sickness absence reaches unacceptable levels.

1. Short-term absence

• Your Line Manager will formally review your absence record if in any three-month period there are three separate periods of absence (whether these are certificated or not), or if there is an unacceptable pattern of absence, for example, regular time off on Mondays or Fridays.

2. Long-term absence

• ‘Long term absence’ is a period of sickness, which lasts longer than two calendar weeks • The Company takes a sympathetic view about genuine ill-health problems and will provide a supportive approach to all employees in such circumstances • Your Line Manager will monitor your absence and will counsel you through a period of sickness absence. If, after discussion it appears that you are likely to be away from work for more than four weeks your Line Manager will telephone you every fortnight and may visit your home every month.

These arrangements may be varied by agreement. Home visits will not be made without your consent Ultimately, if absence (either short term or long term) does reach problematic levels then the Company will take action under the Capability Review Policy & Procedure (Absence). Refer to the Capability Review Policy & Procedure (Absence) in the appendices for full details.

Returning to Work

How your return to work is managed after a period of absence will depend on the length of your absence and the reason for it. In cases of short term absence, the return to work may be relatively straight forward and mainly focus on getting up to date with relevant work matters.

Managers are required to take reasonable steps to manage the workload of employees who are on sick leave to prevent the individual returning to a large backlog of work. The Executive Team may be contacted for further advice. Going back to work after a longer period of absence typically requires advance planning and, after the return, close monitoring.

Medical professionals say that sometimes, depending on the nature of an illness or injury, returning to work before full fitness can be helpful to recovery. Your doctor can give advice and support with regard to when a return to work might be appropriate. When you return to work after a period of sickness absence you should have a discussion with your line manager. The purpose of this is to consider your wellbeing in light of your absence and to update you on any relevant work matters. It also provides an opportunity to identify any underlying issues or concerns at an early stage and, hopefully, resolve them. The discussion should focus on the following points: • The reason for your absence • Care and concern regarding your well being • Ensuring you have not returned to work too early • Updating you on any work-related matters • If appropriate, identifying any underlying reasons for absence and ensuring that suitable assistance and support is given where possible • Assisting in the monitoring and review of your sickness record and identifying any patterns that may be emerging details of the meeting should be recorded (Appendix 3) and forwarded by the line manager to the Executive Team. Information discussed at the return-to-work meeting is contained within the self- certification form, which must be returned.

Guidance and Support

If a line manager considers that there may be a cause for concern regarding an employee’s attendance record, they should discuss this matter further with the Executive Team. The Executive Team will advise on arranging a guidance and support meeting with the employee, in which the frequency, reasons and amount of absence may be discussed. The employee should be invited to attend this meeting and be given the opportunity to bring someone along with them, i.e. a work colleague. A guidance and support meeting may be arranged due to an employee’s absence record reaching a trigger point or because there is a cause for concern about the absence(s) or reasons for it. During the meeting the following points should be covered:

• The attendance record and reasons for absence • The reasons for concern • Any underlying factors or mitigating circumstances such as personal or work related problems which may be addressed • An action plan, to manage the situation in the future

Managing Attendance

While absences, and the reasons for them, are considered on a case-by-case basis, there are some trigger points at which a guidance and support meeting normally takes place.

The trigger points are: • 5 separate periods of absence, occurring within a 12-month rolling year • 1 continuous absence, lasting one month or more • A Bradford Factor* of 100 or more

*The Bradford Factor is a widely used measure of sickness absence and is calculated at follows: Bradford Factor = no. of days’ sickness absence in past 12 months x no. of episodes

Pattern of Absences

Sometimes a pattern to an employee’s absences emerges, for example they tend to be absent on a particular day of the week or time of the year. Similarly, a number of absences may occur for the same or related reasons due to a particular health, or other, problem. Identifying and discussing patterns can sometimes be helpful identifying the root cause of absence and addressing attendance issues.

Record Keeping

Accurate records are not only mandatory for the purposes of sick pay but are essential for monitoring sickness absence. Records must be completed for every member of staff by the Executive Team. Such records should show dates of an employee’s absence and reason for absence. The line manager must forward all self-certification forms and any details of return to work discussions held with the employee to the Executive Team. The Executive Team will log all absences in the Absence Management Record. This procedure ensures we can monitor staff absence levels. It should be noted that all such information is confidential and handled in line with our General Data Protection Regulations Policy.

Unsatisfactory Attendance

Sometimes an employee’s absence from work inhibits their ability to carry out their role satisfactorily. This is usually due to either frequent spells of short term absence or a long-term absence. In such circumstances the Capability Review Policy & Procedure (Absence) is used. Refer to Appendix 5.

General Conditions

1. Submission of a medical certificate or Sickness Self-Certification Absence Form, although giving us the reason for your absence, may not always be regarded by us as sufficient justification for accepting your absence. Sickness is just one of a number of reasons for absence and although it is understandable that if you are sick you may need time off, continual or repeated absence through sickness may not be acceptable to us. 2. In deciding whether your absence is acceptable or not we will take into account the reasons and extent of all your absences, including any

absence caused by sickness. We cannot operate with an excessive level absence as all absence, for whatever reason, reduces our efficiency. 3. We will take a serious view if you take sickness/injury leave that is not genuine, and it will result in disciplinary action being taken. 4. If we consider it necessary, we may ask your permission to contact your doctor or for you to be independently medically examined. 5. Employees should not participate in any other work or projects, whether paid or unpaid, during sick leave unless they have received written authorisation from their line manager. 6. Staff members should put on their out of office message so that clients are aware of the situation in case they have an urgent request and can be redirected to someone else in the team. 7. Line managers will send out a Self-Certification Form to the staff member. These Self- Certifications must be completed by the staff member upon return to work and must be returned to your Line Manager by the end of your first day back at work. Line Managers will then store this form in the staff members personnel file and forward a copy of this form to the Executive Team. 8. You should avoid contacting staff members via their mobile phone when they are ill so that they can recover. The only exception to this would be an emergency.

Attending Work While on Sick Leave

If you wish to attend Shaper/Caper or other work-related activity outside Shaper/Caper (for example a meeting or CPD event) while on sick leave, you should contact your line manager or the Executive Team in advance to discuss this and make arrangements as appropriate.